Waitress served a WWII veteran for 7 years when no one else would, then she found what he left her
Over the years, Salazar had served hundreds of customers, but none like Swords
Every day at Luby’s in Texas, Walter “Buck” Swords would walk in just before 11:30 and make his demands clear. His coffee had to be hotter, his soup wasn’t right, and nothing ever seemed good enough. Known for his constant complaints and sharp tone, the WWII veteran had built a reputation as the customer no one wanted to deal with, NBC News reports. Despite his behavior, for a full seven years, waitress Melina Salazar kept serving him — a choice that would later lead to something she never saw coming.
She never said a word
Over the years, Salazar had served hundreds of customers, but none like Swords. It led to a strange bonding between the two, wherein Swords was the aggressive one, and Salazar was the one whose calm was tested the most. While other servers exchanged shifts and did anything to avoid serving Swords, Salazar didn’t forget to ask him, “How are you doing today, Mr. Swords?” despite his stinging remarks, as reported by So Yummy.
The customer at Table Nine
Everybody constantly asked her why she put up with him, but she stayed put, consistent and persistent in her service. “He’s a customer,” she would answer them. In one scenario, the restaurant's microwave encountered a fault. Salazar was so frightened to displease the hot-loving Swords that she walked to the back office, borrowed a portable burner, and reheated Swords’ meal before serving him.
'Thank you for never giving up'
It was an afternoon in July 2007, just before the holiday rush, when Salazar came to know that Swords had passed away. She was flipping through the obituary section of Brownsville Herald when it dawned on her that her most regular customer was no more. Little did she know that the crabby old man had left a surprise for her. The 89-year-old man had left the waitress a thumping sum of $50,000 and a 2000 Buick car.
Along with the amount, she also got a letter that she never expected to read. “You made an old man feel human again,” Swords had written. “No one ever asked about me. You did — every single day. You reminded me of someone I lost. Thank you for never giving up.”
The trauma of World War veterans
According to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers observed more than 50,000 World War II veterans and reported that up to 40% of them experience some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, which could be a leading cause of Swords' grumpy and sad demeanor. Nearly 27% were treated in some kind of psychiatric hospital due to trauma induced by the war.
In what may seem like a paradox of his personality, the WWII veteran wrote that Salazar’s smile made the food warmer, her voice softened his days, and he failed to say the thank you that he so desperately wanted to express. "I still can't believe it," the Luby’s cafeteria waitress told Harlingen television station KGBT-TV, per NBC News.
More on Scoop Upworthy
WWII Veteran of the 'Ghost Army' honored for tricking Nazis with illusions: 'I faked everything'
This woman who used a disguise to save over 2500 Jewish children in WWII is a global inspiration
Share on Facebook
