Dad Posts Receipt with Note from Cop that Left His 7-Month-Pregnant Daughter in Tears
The internet is full of wonderful and terrible things. It’s a great way to get personal stories circulating, and is one of the easiest and fastest ways to send a message to the general public.
Sometimes people tell sad stories, or post videos of horrible things that have happened, but there to balance things out are people like Brian Cadigan, who has a story of kindness to tell.
On Feb. 16 he posted a lovely recap of something his daughter Courtney English had just experienced at her job. She works at the Lamp Post Diner in Clementon, New Jersey, and an officer brightened her day by leaving her an unexpected tip.
His daughter snapped a photo of the receipt and sent it to her dad, who was so impressed that he just had to write about it.
“You always hear about how Bad the Police are, How They treated you like dirt, how they are on a Power Trip,” Cadigan started his post, “Yes I am sure there are some bad apples, but most of them are just doing their jobs, they deal with the worst of society every day and have to keep going back everyday and deal with it all over again. They risk their lives each day just to do their job, of trying to enforce the laws that they didn’t make.”
“They are human, and do many good things everyday that most people will never know about, like giving the young mother a warning instead of a ticket, because they know she is struggling, or locking up an abusive spouse, and giving the abused information to get out of the relationship safely.”
“Or just being a nice person, in a stressful and upsetting situation,” Cadigan continued. “They are people, they have feelings, and they have Jobs to do, sometimes they may not like what they have to do, but they do it without question.”
Cadigan went on to explain that his daughter, who is seven months pregnant, works hard at a local diner to save up money for her first child.
“(T)his will be her first child and she is so excited, she is always cheerful at work, so she has alot of regulars, but this was not one of them…” he wrote.
“Yesterday she was working the lunch shift when a Voorhees Twp police officer came in, he was pleasant, and had his lunch by himself, and asked for the check. My daughter gave him his check, and moved on to wait other tables, the officer went to the cashier and paid his bill, and left a note on the bill for my Daughter…”
The officer left English a $100 tip on a $8.75 bill, accompanied by a few encouraging words: “Enjoy your first, You will never forget it.”
“What a wonderful person to not only leave a VERY generous tip, but a lovely message, I don’t know you Mr Police Officer, but you made my little girl cry, and made her year,” Cadigan continued. “Thank you, I always had the utmost respect for Officers, but you went above and beyond not just an officer, but a beautiful human being. God Bless.”
“We didn’t really even talk,” English later told NJ Advance Media. “I brought him his menu, he ordered a salad and I got it for him. I was telling the people at the table behind him that it was my first baby.”
Manager Mark Patete knows the generous cop, but everyone’s keeping mum on his identity as he wishes to stay out of the limelight.
“If he’s in the area he stops in,” Patete said. “Doesn’t say much but a really nice guy. He usually just eats alone and leaves.”
“It’s not the amount, it’s the humanity of it,” Cadigan acknowledged. “He saw she was struggling and a young girl. She was working in a diner while pregnant, standing with that kind of weight on her, and it was his way of saying, ‘I understand your struggle.'”
It’s people like this kind officer that remind us to spread kindness, because kindness, in all its forms, is always worth the world to someone.
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