A Michigan restaurant server closed 2020 with an unexpected gift – a couple left him with a $ 2,020 tip.
The generous gift arrived Sunday with a $ 23.33 bill at the Thunder Bay River restaurant in Alpena, northeastern Michigan, along with a handwritten message that said “Happy New Year. 2021 Tip Challenge.”
The waitress, Danielle Franzoni, a single mother and addicted to recovery who was left homeless a year ago, said she initially thought the advice was a joke.
His manager assured him it was real, but said in a recent interview that it has not yet sunk.
“I don’t even have the exact words,” Franzoni said. “I feel like I want to say it all from the bottom of my heart, but this couple has no idea what they’ve done for my family.”
Franzoni said he plans to use the money to restore his driver’s license, which he said was “huge.” He said the couple who left the tip, with whom he has spoken before, probably did not know their past struggles.
“They don’t know anything about me, I’ve never had conversations with them,” Franzoni said. “And they’ve changed my life, completely.”
Feeling was more important than money, Franzoni said. “From where I was before and the decisions I made in life, that doesn’t happen to someone like me,” he said.
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“It’s the message. It’s the faith that this couple and this family have returned to my family,” he added. “I’m a waitress. I don’t make a lot of money. It would take me months to save $ 2,000.”
Alpena is a town of about 10,000 on the coast of Thunder Bay, off Lake Huron.
This holiday season has also seen other great tips. Just before Christmas in Madison, Wisconsin, donors from the Dane County Girls and Girls Club gave a $ 4,000 tip to be split by two servers at a restaurant there, NBC affiliate WMTV reported.
Also in December, a group of twelve people at a Cracker Barrel in Dublin, Georgia, who had asked for the restaurant’s best waiter showed their gratitude by leaving a $ 1,200 tip, The Macon Telegraph reported. Janet Ballard said she was “overwhelmed” and cried after the gesture.
