Firefighters impressed by a New Jersey waitresses’s generosity are paying her and her family back in a way that she never expected.
For waitress Liz Woodward, she never thought that her little act of kindness to two exhausted firefighters would later give her a much bigger return.
Her heartwarming story on one Thursday morning when two volunteer firefighters entered a diner in New Jersey.
It was 5 am and the pair had just finished helping to extinguish a fire that had caused a huge damage to a warehouse
Paul Hullings and Tim Young sat down at a table and Liz quickly went to the table to take their order.
After Paul and Tim finished their breakfast and asked for the bill, they were very surprised to find out what was written on the bill.
There was a long handwritten note on it and they later realized that the bill was already taken care of
“Your breakfast is on me today. Thank you for all that you do; for serving others & for running into the places everyone else runs away from,” the note read.
She ended up paying for their breakfast and leaving them a kind note thanking them for their service, and her gratitude was not lost on them.
As their own expression of thankfulness, the firefighters shared a picture of the note on Facebook and used the attention it received to raise tens of thousands of dollars to get her quadriplegic father a wheelchair accessible van.
‘Thank you all that you do, for serving us and for running into the places everyone runs away from. No matter your role, you are courageous, brave and strong,’ Woodward wrote in the note
‘Thank you for being bold and badass everyday. Fueled by fire and driven by courage – what an example you are. Get some rest!”
Paul and Tim were moved by Liz’s sincere action although she, too, had worked through the night shift like them.
The two men later posted the image of Liz’s handwritten note and wrote about their dining experience at the Route 130 Diner in Delran where Liz works as a waitress.
Paul and Tim also encouraged their readers to dine at the restaurant and give a big tip to Liz. Apparently, they did not stop there.
After searching for Liz’s Facebook page, both of them learned that Liz had been struggling to buy a wheelchair-accessible van for her father
‘I started tearing up and it made me feel good – us firefighters are wanted, people care about us,’ Mount Holly Fire Department’s Paul Hullings told ABC 6 about receiving the message.
His friend and fellow firefighter Tim Young made a post about the diner experience was quickly shared more than 3,000 times.
However, it was not until afterward that they realized they could help Woodward in a meaningful way.
‘Turns out, the young lady who gave us a free meal is really the one that could use the help…’ Young posted along with a link to a GoFundMe page for Woodward’s dad Steve.
The father became a quadriplegic and is bed-bound after a brain aneurysm in 2010, according to the page started in December.
Donations met the page’s $17,000 goal, though the family later realized that the father, who suffered a Grand Mal seizure on Monday, may be better suited by a more expensive van that costs up to $80,000.
Since news of Young and Hullings return of kindness got out, the page has gone from roughly $25,000 to more than $56,000 as of Saturday night.
One anonymous donor inspired by the story gave $5,000.
Steve Woodward was discharged from a hospital in Trenton as news of his daughter and the firefighters’ kindness spread.
He is now doing well back at home, and his daughter says that the family ultimately wants to set up a nonprofit to help educate people about and help people who suffer brain aneurysms.
Source:dailymail.co.uk, gtgoodtimes.com
