Grieving waitress was struggling at work, so a customer left her $100 and unexpected note that made her cry

The holiday season used to be a time when people could spend time with their family, go on trips, or simply stay in and watch Christmas specials. But in an economy where costs aren't going down and rent among other expenses remains a burden, people have to slog it out through holidays to make ends meet. Tipping culture may be a subject of debate for some, but for many workers, tips are an essential part of their income. This was also true for a waitress named Heather Schelsteder, who was waiting tables at Cheddar’s Restaurant in Baytown during the holidays in 2022 when a woman walked in with her two kids.

The waitress started chatting with the customer who looked over the restaurant's menu, and learned that the mother of two was a criminal psychologist. Schelsteder then told the woman how she had recently lost her grandmother and has been struggling with the loss ever since. She learned that the psychologist was interviewing people who had returned from war and were suffering from PTSD. According to the waitress, the psychologist was deeply affected by her work because her brother was killed in a war.

"We both started getting teary-eyed, and then we're both like trying to blink it away, and then it just kind of went from there," Schlesteder said in the video by Humankind. "We just kept talking until the next table came in and she got up and left," she added. She then said how the psychologist really "made a difference" in realizing that there are still people in the world who care. "It made me feel so special and it felt like she understood how hard it was to lose someone."

After the family of three left, she looked at the receipt and realized that she had received a $100 tip on a $27 bill, which was 370% of the amount. The receipt also contained a note that read, "Have an amazing New Year. It gets easier." The waitress then said how the note and the customer's generosity moved her. 

In another story that shows how a simple act of kindness can go a long way, the staff of a Michigan restaurant got the surprise of a lifetime when a customer left behind a $10,000 tip on his $32.43 bill, which added up to a gratuity of 30,835%. According to the manager Tim Sweeney, the tip had the whole staff confused. "We went back and forth. I had a conversation with him. He wanted to proceed. [The waitress] was shocked," he told Business Insider.

"It was in memory of a friend who had recently passed and he was in town for the funeral," waitress Paige Mulick, who was also working that day, said. "It was just really an act of kindness that impacted so many people." The tip was later split nine ways among the waiting staff, with each of them getting more than $1,100. Mulick, who had recently graduated from Western Michigan University, said she planned to use her share to pay back her student loan. 

"(I’ll) lower that interest every bit I can,” she laughed. "We had so many incredible women working that day, so many hardworking mothers … just who really deserve this." Sweeney later talked about how leading a hand and changing somebody's life doesn't always have to be a mammoth task. "It’s very important to just keep that in the forefront, keep that top of mind. A little bit goes a long way. In this situation, a lot goes a long way," he added.