Waitress got a handwritten note from elderly couple mid-shift — and broke down after reading it

Waiters encounter customers of all kinds. While we often hear stories of rude customers, there are also heartwarming experiences that move servers to tears. Sharing one such story on July 6, waitress Katie Miller shared a note she received from a couple who were touched by her simple conversation.

Twenty-five-year-old Katie Miller was working her routine dinner shift at a restaurant in downtown Boise when an elderly couple visited. It was the couple's 8th wedding anniversary, and Miller decided to engage in a simple conversation that left a lasting impact on the couple. What exactly did they talk about? Miller was awestruck by the woman's hair colour and complimented her. She said to Newsweek, "I told her how people nowadays are dying their hair to look like hers." The wife then laughed and admitted to dying her grey hair. Miller, too, admitted having a few grey strands, but joked that she just plucked them out. She added, "We were all laughing."

Miller was unaware that the couple had recently been struck by the tragedy of losing their daughter. After the couple dined, as they were about to leave, the husband left a note written on the back of the bill, expressing his gratitude to Miller for making his wife smile. The note read, "Katie, I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful service. Our 27-year-old daughter passed away unexpectedly about 5 weeks ago, and today is the first day I have been able to get my wife out to enjoy a real meal. Thank you for making her smile. Yoy will never know what it means to us."

Miller, who got choked up reading the note, was left 'sobbing mid shift', knowing that the couple she had a warm interaction with was going through their own grief. Despite wanting to let them know how truly loved they are, she chose not to go after them. Katie then took to her TikTok account to share the heartfelt note with her followers, and captioned it, "I'm a server and the note my guests left me tonight had me sobbing mid shift."

A study authored by Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley in 2023 explored how people often underestimate the positive impact their acts of kindness have on others. The study conducted experiments, where givers rated the impact of their kind acts lower than recipients did, which suggested that kindness can have a significant effect even when the giver is unaware of the recipient's situation. The study found that both givers and receivers experience increased happiness following acts of kindness, but givers consistently predict a lesser impact on the recipient's well-being than what is actually felt.

Immediately after Katie Miller's video received huge attention online, many users shared their thoughts on the heartwarming video. @SethRogensLeftNut420 wrote, "Are those tears on the page? I’m sobbing."

Another user named @Patricia.Shawn commented, "The shaky handwriting." @VloginNavy wrote, "You never know what someone’s going through."

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