A Winnipeg restaurant server thought one of her customers was out to lunch when she received a life-changing $1,000 tip on Saturday.
Jennifer Peitsch choked back tears of joy as she asked if the woman’s extravagant gratuity on an $87.15 meal at Mongo’s Grill was indeed real.
“I started crying,” she told CTV News Channel. “I said, ‘Are you sure that I can have this tip? If you want it back I can give it back to you.’”
Peitsch says she works two jobs to get by. Her day, she says, often starts at 5:30 a.m. to make a 45-minute commute to a grocery store for a nine-hour shift. That’s followed by an hour’s drive to Mongo’s, where she puts in another 5.5 hours.
“It's exhausting and not enough. Bills are high, credit card's full. (I) haven't even saved up so I can finally go to post-secondary school. Debt is miserable and stressful,” she wrote in a Facebook post about the encounter.
As luck would have it, Peitsch wasn’t supposed to be working that evening. She agreed to fill in for a co-worker in a different section.
Patrons were lined up at the door for a table in the packed restaurant that night, she recalls. She was relying on other staff to help her deal with a backlog of orders and feeling nervous about making a mistake.
Meanwhile, a woman, who she identified in the post as Lisa Julia Holgate, and three teenagers patiently enjoyed a meal.
“The woman could see I was busy and anxious (about) getting everything done on time, yet (she) tried to be kind and friendly. When she was ready for payment, we made friendly small talk,” she wrote. “They were all were very understanding.”
After an emotional discussion about if the tip was real, Holgate asked Peitsch to pay if forward if she has the opportunity. Peitsch was so flustered that she forgot to get her name. She was anxious to share the impact of the random act of kindness.
“I have a credit card that I actually paid off completely. Now I can just start saving up for school,” she said. “Now I can actually save up for something bigger.”
