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Waffle House Waitress Helps Elderly Man
Working in a bar/restaurant is quite demanding, and to find that there are still employees who are willing to help customers with things that are unrelated to their job description is heartwarming. One such story recently happened at the Waffle House in La Marque, Texas, on what looked like a regular workday morning. The waitress for that morning was recorded on camera helping an elderly man. No one realized that the whole story would go viral, changing the life of this young girl forever. We are sure this story will make your day just a little bit brighter.
Click NEXT to find out how this waitress went above and beyond with her customer service!
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The First Scene
This story is set on a busy Saturday morning, as waitress Evoni Williams, who is saving up for college, has a hectic shift. Not only is she serving lots of drinks, but she is also making numerous breakfast meals, of which waffles are the most popular. As she is going through the orders and trying to stay composed and keep the customers happy, one of them, a woman named Laura Wolf, notices that she has more work than usual.
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Something Is Off
As this happens, Laura Wolf, a regular customer at the aforementioned Waffle House, is focused on Evoni (‘Nini’) only. It was becoming clear that something was different. She comes in regularly to have a friendly chit-chat with the employees and drink a cup of her favorite coffee. As soon as she saw what was happening in the corner, she left her order and started recording Evoni Williams as she was busy helping someone. Evoni did not know anyone had realized what she was doing.
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Hectic Morning
Again, the restaurant was much busier than usual that morning, which was probably due to it being a Saturday. Being this remarkably busy, Laura was quite impressed with how all of the employees were doing their best to keep up – the chefs were pushing out several scrambled egg/waffle plates every couple of minutes, and the coffee/shake machine had never worked more efficiently.
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Evoni Williams
Evoni Williams had been employed at this waffle house for a couple of years. If you would ask any of her co-workers, as well as patrons who came in regularly, you would get the same answer – she is extremely hard-working. This is something that Laura Wolf knew, as well – in fact, she enjoyed chatting with her and was quite surprised that Evoni was so busy that morning that she couldn’t even sit for a couple of minutes.
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Saving for College
At the beginning of this story, we mentioned that one of the main reasons why Evoni was working at this Waffle House in the first place was to save up money for college. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to save much as she had a lot of side expenses. The numbers just weren’t adding up, although she was spending countless hours every week serving drinks, food, and doing her best to keep every customer satisfied.
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Doing Her Best
As her shift continued, and Laura kept watching Evoni do her best, it was quite clear she was motivated to serve as many tables as possible, as the potential for good tips was greater, as well. You probably know that most servers in bars/restaurants don’t make that much out of their weekly/monthly pay, and they rely on tips, which is something that you should remember the next time you go out for a meal.
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Burning Out
Yes, the tips were much better than usual, but the fact that the restaurant was understaffed that morning made it much harder on Evoni. In fact, she was feeling overwhelmed, and after hours of going from one table to another, she recognized the first signs of exhaustion and burning out. This is when our story takes a huge plot twist, as she noticed something happening over in the corner.
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The Attention Catcher
What was it that caught her attention? It was an elderly man, known affectionately to the staff as Mr. Karaoke. This elderly man named Adrien is 78 years old and had been visiting this restaurant on a regular basis for the past couple of months. The one thing that was out of the ordinary about this man was that he always had an oxygen tank with him – just as he did on that Saturday morning.
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Flagged Down
With Evoni being so busy for all those hours, it wasn’t surprising that she didn’t notice Adrien when he first entered. She was doing her best to balance all the existing orders and making sure that she didn’t miss anything for the upcoming ones. Just as she thought that she was getting ahead and making up ground, she saw Mr. Karaoke trying to call her over. He had been waving for a couple of minutes now. When she came over, he whispered something to her, which no one but Evoni and Laura heard (as she was recording).
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The Source of the Camera
While Wolf was doing her best to record every segment of the action, she wasn’t having the best time hearing and making sure that everything was caught on camera. This is when she moved closer, as she was intrigued by the fact that Evoni stopped to listen and hear the man instead of simply walking by, given how busy the restaurant was at that point and that every second counted.
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Non-Understandable
It was not only Laura Wolf who had somewhat of a tough time understanding what Mr. Karaoke was trying to say. Evoni was struggling to understand him, as well. When you are working in a busy restaurant and utensils are clattering, as well as several groups of people talking at the same time, it can be quite hard to hear someone who is whispering. This is when a cook from the kitchen shouted at Evoni trying to get her back to work, but her main priority was to stay and listen to Adrien.
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Problem With the Order?
It was quite interesting how Evoni was sure that the man on oxygen, Adrien, had called her over to complain about the food that he had received. This is something that could be expected, given the fact that on such a busy morning, it is almost impossible to serve all top-quality dishes. At that point, Laura Wolf noticed the waitress grabbing the man’s plate, moving it closer to her, and sliding it back to Adrien…but what happened? Apparently, it wasn’t a food complaint given the fact that the scrambled eggs and toast weren’t returned to the kitchen.
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The Secret Watcher
Although this story may sound like it lasted for quite a while, it was a matter of 50-60 seconds at the most. However, for Evoni, that was the only single thing that mattered at that point. As we have mentioned above, Laura Wolf was still there, recording and trying to get details on what was happening at Adrien’s table. Not only was she recording, but there was another camera capturing this unique moment.
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Surveillance Footage
Apart from Laura’s camera, the security camera was running and recording this whole process. These are incredibly important, especially when it comes to busy restaurants like the Waffle House we are talking about is. Hanging from the ceiling, this surveillance camera had a clear shot of the waitress going to Adrien’s table, listening to the request, and completely ignoring the cook who was shouting at that moment.
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Scene Goes Viral
Once Evoni Williams fulfilled the man’s request and returned his plate, being sure that no one saw what happened, she went on with her day. The restaurant was still incredibly busy, which means that she didn’t have a lot of time to think through what had just happened. However, there was one person that had all the time in the world to figure out what to do with the content she just recorded. Yes, we are talking about Laura Wolf, who out of all of her options, decided to post this video on Facebook.
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So What Did Adrien Say?
At this point, you have probably made some guesses as to what Adrien said that made Evoni Williams stop with her other orders and help the man. Believe it or not, what the man said is that as he had a number of health problems, including pneumonia. He was having a hard time working with a knife that day. Thus, he asked Evoni Williams if she could cut his ham so that he could eat it more easily – this little ordeal went on to change her life.
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Slice the Ham
Just before her workday was done, the waitress was asked what that situation was about, and she said that one customer wasn’t feeling well and had trouble slicing the ham, so she leaned in to help. That is exactly what both Laura’s camera and the surveillance camera captured, but Evoni didn’t have a clue that her good deed had gone viral.
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Laura’s Facebook Post
The woman that was recording the whole time, Laura, posted the video on her Facebook profile, claiming that she didn’t know the name of the employee but she watched her lean towards the customer who said his hands aren’t working that well. Describing it as an act of kindness that is rarely to be seen, Wolf went on to say that, although that may have been quite easy to do for Evoni, it was a huge favor for Adrien.
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Overnight Popularity
With Laura’s Facebook post being shared thousands of times across social media within just a couple of hours, what Evoni Williams did was spreading like wildfire. There were many different comments, including the one that Wolf made related to how the world would be a much better place if we all took a little of our time to give others a helping hand. Little did all of them know that such a small act would change Evoni’s life for the better.
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Thousands of Likes
With just below a hundred thousand likes, as well as thousands of shares and comments, in just a couple of days, Evoni Williams became popular not only in her town but all over the country. Frankly, she became a celebrity overnight, and that led a highly influential person to react and help this waitress out!
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Bobby Hocking Meets Evoni
As stated above, La Marque, a town in Texas, is relatively small, with just above 16,000 people living in it. However, it seemed like everyone was talking about what Evoni had done, which quickly led to the mayor, Bobby Hocking, coming in for a visit to meet Williams. With cameras from the most popular television sets all over the place for this spectacular event, this wasn’t just a regular meet-and-greet.
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The Reward
With camera crews and patrons gathered at the La Marque Waffle House, everyone was happy to witness the moment of Mayor Bobby rewarding Evoni Williams, who certainly deserved it. What happened next? The mayor proclaimed the 8th of March as Evoni ‘Nini’ Williams Day, which is an honor most of us couldn’t imagine even in our wildest dreams.
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The Last Trick Up the Mayor’s Sleeve
As thousands of people learned about the case of Evoni Williams, not only did Waffle House become even busier, but La Marque also started a GoFundMe for the waitress, with the goal of collecting $16,000 that was needed for the college education Evoni had in mind.
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College Helps Out
As the people at Houston TSU college found out about this case, they decided it was their duty to help Evoni become their student. Very soon after, they came into the Waffle House and rewarded her with a $16,000 scholarship. In the end, it is so great to know that people and things like this still happen, even though we are all living in a rushed world. Don’t forget Laura and Adrien, though! Without them, this story wouldn’t be the same!
If you would like to find out about different ways to make your savings account grow quickly, take a look here.
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