A Canadian man who lost his wife recently was dining alone in a restaurant when he picked the tab for a couple who were sitting nearby this past week. His act of generosity went viral which was unexpected for him.
Courtesy of Lee Ballantyne / Lee and Carol Ballantyne.
But somebody clicked a
pic of the explanatory note of his reason for paying the bill and when the
photo got posted to Reddit, it spread rapidly, and lots of people were moved
the world over.
On December 30th,
Lee Ballantyne, 65, of Barrie, Ontario lost his wife Carol. When he saw a couple
sitting nearby eating at Cicco’s restaurant, the thought of his late wife came
to his mind, which encouraged him to the deed of kindness.
“I just wanted to write
what I felt at the time so I scrawled it on a napkin,” Ballantyne told
TODAY.com.
"You don’t know me,
but my beautiful wife of 43 years died last week," read his handwritten note.
"Tonight I dined alone for the first time. You remind me of us many years
ago. Please allow me to buy your dinner. It will put a smile on Carol’s face
and make me happy… for now."
The waitress was handed
over the note by Ballantyne and he asked her to transfer the bill of the couple
to his credit card. The waitress then requested the owner of Cicco’s Lindsay
Weiss to tell the surprising gesture to the couple.
Weiss said the response
was moving for everybody. “They [the couple] were beyond touched and grateful.
I cried. The waitress and chef cried. It was one of the kindest gestures I’ve
ever witnessed,” Weiss told TODAY.com.
The man gave a phone
call to Ballantyne that evening which surprised him. He thanked him for paying
their bill and offered their condolences and told him that they want to take
Ballantyne to dinner sometime in future.
Many of the staff
members of Cicco’s chose social media to post this note and the news spread of
this good deed. After sometime, the note went viral as millions of people were enthused
by Ballantyne’s act.
“It was just a simple
gesture and it seemed like an ideal time to do that. I guess I had a selfish
motive, I wanted to make myself feel good. And it did for a while. It still
does,” Ballantyne said.
Carol, 62 when she
passed away, was survived by her husband and three sons and five grandchildren.
They all were astonished by the speed of the spread of Lee’s note online, where it has been viewed over 800,000 times, resulting in the news reports worldwide.
Ballantyne expressed his
gratefulness for the chance to share Carol’s memory with the world.
“My wife’s strength and
joy of life is now known to millions of people just because of that gesture so
I accomplished something there. I’m glad people got to know a little about
Carol,“ Ballantyne said.
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