Waffle House waitress surprised with scholarship after customer captures her act of kindness
After Adrien Charpentier had surgery, his hands were giving him trouble, and the 78-year-old asked his waitress at the La Marque, Texas, Waffle House if she'd help him by cutting his food.
Evoni Williams, 18, thought only Charpentier was watching as she assisted him, but diner Laura Wolf had her eyes on the pair, and she took a photo of the act of kindness, posting it on her Facebook page. "It was so busy in here and she actually took the time to stop and hear what he had to say, instead of walking past him," she told KHOU. "That just meant something to me."
The photo went viral online, with thousands of people seeing it — including officials at the city of La Marque. They surprised Williams by coming to her work, proclaiming it Evoni Nene Williams Day, and notifying her that she was receiving a $16,000 scholarship to Texas Southern University. Williams works at the Waffle House in order to pay for college, and she is grateful for being recognized for doing the right thing. "It's something I'd do any other day," she said. Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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