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We all interact with multiple people every day whose true stories we’ll never know. Often, someone can be going through one of the most excruciating experiences of their life, but they’ll be able to hide it behind a smile. 

This is why customer service jobs are so complex. You never know what a customer might be going through in their personal life that could be impacting their mood. Case in point: a server who received a note from a customer that brought her to tears.

A server got a new perspective on life after waiting on a couple.

According to Newsweek, 25-year-old Katie Miller works as a server in Boise, Idaho. She didn’t think anything of it when she recently served a couple that was celebrating their anniversary. The couple, who had been together for 48 years, laughed with Miller about the pitfalls of getting older.

Pavel Danilyuk | Pexels

“She had beautiful curly red hair,” Miller told the outlet about the wife. “I told her how people nowadays are dyeing their hair to look like hers. She laughed and said she dyes it to hide the greys. I admitted I have some too, and just pluck them out. We were all laughing.”

For Miller, it seemed like nothing other than a typical table with a typical couple. By the time they left, she found out it was anything but. In a TikTok post that has been viewed over two million times, Miler shared a selfie with the message, “I’m a server and the note my guests left me tonight had me sobbing mid-shift.”

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On the back of the couple’s bill, where the husband had written her a message that stopped her in her tracks. 

“Just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful service. Our 27-year-old daughter passed away unexpectedly about five weeks ago and today is the first day I have been able to get my wife out to enjoy a real meal.”

Katie Miller | TikTok

He continued, “Thank you for making her smile. You will never know what it means to us.” Miller couldn’t believe he left such a note after laughing with her just moments before. “You would never have guessed,” she told Newsweek. “It broke me. It hurts knowing people are struggling like that.”

Miller chose not to follow the couple and say anything, instead respecting their privacy. But she shared the note to highlight the fact that everyone is going through something that other people don’t know about.

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Miller created a space for people to share similar encounters.

One person commented on the post and said, “I took my son to work with me once, and a single man who only ordered a $3 beer tipped me $100 and wrote, ‘I used to go to work with my mom too. Make sure you take him to the movies after your shift, on me.’ I kept the receipt until a year ago when it crumbled.”

“Went to a bar once and ran into [an] older dude who just wanted to hang out,” another person said. “At first I thought he was just old and lonely. Turns out his son died in Iraq and I looked just like him … He said I brought him peace.”

There were over 4,000 similar comments from people who had been forever changed by sweet encounters with strangers.

There are so many benefits to being kind.

A report from the U.K.’s Mental Health Foundation shared that being kind can actually boost your own mental health and decrease stress. It also improves mood and self-esteem. It’s great to know that there are effects of being kind that impact us, but what’s most important is how it affects the other person involved.

Miller’s story, and those of so many others, proved that kindness really does benefit everyone involved. It’s far from just the person who receives the kind act that feels a boost. It’s part of the beauty of humanity. You really never know how a simple smile, wave, kind word, or compliment can change the course of another person’s day. 

Most people assume that you need to make a grand gesture to leave an impact on the world, but the real impact is made in small gestures that you likely don’t realize make a huge impact. 

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.