Pregnant waitress moved to tears after receiving unexpected gift right before the holidays

The holiday season is about exchanging gifts with loved ones and spending quality time with friends and family. However, some people can not compromise their work obligations during the season. Those who are employed in the service industry barely get any breaks during the year-end holidays because they have to attend to the surge of customers. But one waitress got to experience what was possibly one of the luckiest days of her life at her job.

u/aoc_ftw shared a video on Reddit that captured a waitress having a brief conversation with her customers before taking their orders. Ashley Barrett, the waitress who hailed from York, Pennsylvania, was expecting her second child at the time, per the New York Post. Since it happened to be the season of gratitude and expressing kindness, the customers at the eatery decided to surprise the waitress, which drove her to shed tears of joy. Barrett can be seen getting caught off-guard in the video as a customer, Jamie Carmen, asks her about the biggest tip she has received so far.

She ponders for a moment before answering, "Maybe $100." Then Carmen informs her that he and his friends had collected some money and now that they are sitting in the section of the restaurant where Barrett is serving, she is about to receive a $1,300 tip from their table. The waitress appears stunned, initially getting speechless. But the man pulls out $1,300 in cash to tip her.

Even though Barrett was still in disbelief, she politely declined the huge tip initially. Then Carmen made an interesting deal with her. He told her that she must give a share of the tip she received to each of the cooks who were working in the restaurant. "I can do that," the waitress readily replies. As the customer encourages her to take the money, distribute the $300 among other staff and keep the $1000 for herself, she bursts into tears and hugs the kind fellow for his generosity.

"It's too much money," she weeps as the man stands up and they hug once more and it is clear that the sum means a lot to her. Carmen even pointed out how she might need the money more than anyone else because she was pregnant and it was almost Christmas. "Thank you," she tearfully said to him.

People on Reddit got emotional over the heartwarming video and expressed their thoughts about the workers in the service industry and the lucky waitress. u/oheyitrsmoe shared, "This happened to me Friday. My new job gave me a $500 Christmas bonus. I was expecting nothing, or maybe $50. I've been a teacher for ten years and that's the most I've received from my admin. This money couldn't have come at a better time." u/Outlier25 wrote, "That's the life of a server right there. Did it for 9 years and totally relate to her saying she can't accept it while also physically taking it. You don't have much of a choice. Lovely people to be so kind."

Some people shared their annoyance over the customer filming this tipping incident and posting it on the internet for views, while others thought it was completely fine. u/semicoloradonative quipped, "Filming and posting positive things like this is contagious, making others do good things. I have no problem with people filming. It's much more positive than people filming Karen acting like a fool and yelling at waitstaff for no reason, yet people don't say 'why film it' when that happens."