A Generous Gift

Larissa closed her car door and began walking toward the restaurant. She had her apron in one hand while the other held her little black notebook used for taking customer’s orders. She padded her top pocket to make sure she had her favorite gel, fine ink pens. Phew! And of course, sported her four pieces of flair on her shirt as part as her uniform. She made her way to the back door, and strolled over to the computer to log in, smiling with her eyes and nodding to her fellow coworkers. She punched in her code and looked at the clock. “One shift closer to paying off my student loans,” she said softly under her breath as she greeted her first table.

“Hi, welcome, I’m Larissa and I’ll be your server tonight,” she said kindly as she greeted her first guests of the evening. Her table consisted of a young couple, early twenties, sitting together on the same of the booth. Larissa could never figure out why people would choose to sit right next to each other instead of facing one another. Still, she smiled as she went over the night’s specials and suggested her favorite items from the menu. She turned back towards the kitchen to put in Table Two’s dinner order and couldn’t help but chuckle on her way to the computer.

“What is so funny?” questioned Saige, Larissa’s coworker and closest friend outside of work.

“The host sat me this young couple, super nice, but…I can’t tell where the guy is looking, or where his left eye is looking exactly!” Larissa began laughing. Kyle, another server, and four piece flair wearer stood next to Larissa while he began filling drinks from the soda fountain. “So what exactly is the problem?” questioned Kyle.

“I don’t know where to look, at it, or…” Larissa began.

“The man?” questioned a puzzled Saige.

“No, his eye!” Larissa replied. “Remember our new manager last week said, ‘Look customers in the eye, and your tips will satisfy.’ I can’t tell where he’s looking. And it’s like I’m trying to follow his other eye with my eye, but this is just becoming one big eye mess.”

Kyle began laughing uncontrollably. “You know he could be using this as an excuse to look at your...(shows his hands to his chest).

“You can’t be serious,” said Saige emphatically.

“Why not? This might be God’s greatest gift to this man, to give him the ability to look at women’s breasts and being able to get away with it due to his ‘condition’” Kyle said proudly, as if he had discovered the cure for cancer.

Saige, about to make a comment, closed her mouth, patted Larissa on the shoulder, and turned on her heel towards her newly seated table.

Larissa, somewhat amused by Kyle’s theory, asked, “You really think he would try that with his girlfriend sitting next to him?”

“Not if she can’t tell what he’s looking at either. Just, don’t make a big deal about this, keep your eyes on your little black notebook and pen” replied Kyle.

“But our manager said, “When writing things down, keep your eyes off the ground.”

Kyle, turning away from Larissa to deliver his drinks, said “Ok, then just look at the guy and don’t make a big deal about it,” and walked away.

“But he told us, ‘When guests make you stress, keep on doing your best.”

As if he couldn’t handle another rhyme for the night, Kyle stopped, turned around, and looked at Larissa for a long five seconds, choosing his words carefully. “Ok, Riss, I find it super great that you’re the only employee in this place that actually memorized these dumb lines, but I swear if you say another one I will not make any drinks for your tables, ok?” And whisked away before Larissa had a chance to share another famous quote from the manual written by their new manager.

Larissa always had been a straight A student, an enneagram one, an over achiever. She worked hard and was never given handouts. She was starting nursing school in the next month and took out a student loan, the only debt to her name. Determined to pay off the loan before she graduated in two years, she strategized how many shifts per week she needed in order to keep her on track on paying off this debt. She was teased often by coworkers, but equally envied by her work ethic.

It was ten minutes to close when a frail man, late eighties, opened the door. He was greeted by the host who was cleaning the laminated menus and was shown a booth in Larissa’s section. Although eager to leave, but with no need other than have a date with her binge worthy series on Netflix, Larissa strolled over to the man seated in the corner. She pulled out her favorite pen, opened her little leather black book, and asked, “Hi, I’m Larissa. What can I get for you this evening?”

The older gentleman ordered and watched as Larissa wrote down his entrée of choice. Before she could turn towards the kitchen, he asked, “Young lady, what is your biggest goal in life?”

“Biggest goal?” Larissa asked.

“Yes, it doesn’t matter how big or small. I have no where to go and I love to hear what the future generation aspires to be. One day I will no longer be here, and I’m curious to learn what our future will be like.”

Larissa smiled. No one had asked her that question before, but she had no problem telling the old man exactly what her plans were. “One day I will be a registered nurse and work in the NICU. I will help babies born prematurely or with disabilities and help them thrive so they can go home with their parents. I will be married and have kids of my own, God willing, and I will work hard for my family. I have a twenty-thousand student loan that I will pay off before the day I put on my cap and gown and I will be a keynote speaker talking about work ethic, the power of kindness, and the importance of consistency.”

The gentleman looked up and the corners of his mouth lifted. “Very good, young lady.” And he then pulled the same little black notebook Larissa used for her customer’s orders and set it down on table. “In this book, I have written all my dreams, goals, visions, successes, hardships, failures, and more. In this book I have documented all the things I accomplished, tried to accomplish, and those I fell short of. As I age, I find that while earthly possessions are nice, they’re just things. But here, in this little leather notebook of mine, are the things that truly matter, the things that have made me into the person I am, my legacy. Larissa, you will go far in life, and do not let anyone or anything ever stand in your way of what you wish to accomplish. The future is in good hands.”

A tearful Larissa thanked the man and excused herself to the kitchen to put in his dinner order. A few moments later, she had an iced tea in one hand and a bread basket in the other but found herself delivering to an abandoned table. However, on the table lay the man’s little black notebook with an envelope in it. She opened it while scanning for anyone around, but the restaurant was empty. Inside, a $20,000 check written out to Larissa while on the memo line was written, “Make your dreams your reality. God bless.” The check was signed Rudy R. Breesie.

“The experience changed my life, ladies and gentleman. Ten years ago I was just a server at a restaurant with a dream of becoming a registered nurse with a $20,000 debt to my name. Today, I have been a NICU nurse for almost eight years, have helped saved hundreds of premature babies, and have spoken to thousands on stages throughout the nation about making your dreams your reality. I have been married to the love of my life for almost five years and we are expecting our first child this winter. I didn’t know who Rudy R. Breesie was then, but I learned after he wrote that check he was on hospice and given only a few weeks left. He was a wealthy man with no family and he literally changed my life. I learned he passed one month later after he sat down at my table. I used that check, the most generous gift I had ever been given, and made my dreams a reality. And I tell this story of myself, just young Larissa with big dreams to show you that anyone, at any stage of life, can turn your dreams into reality too. Thank you.”