the value of being kind

[u/nun_CARTII]

For nearly seven years, waitress Melina Salazar showed extraordinary patience and kindness to Walter “Buck” Swords, a notoriously difficult customer at Luby’s Cafeteria in Brownsville, Texas.

The 89-year-old WWII veteran frequently complained, cursed at staff, demanded piping-hot meals and never left a tip. Despite this, Melina continued serving him with compassion.

After Walter died in 2007, Melina received an incredible surprise. He had left her $50,000 and his 2000 Buick in his will as a heartfelt thank-you for her unwavering kindness.

A powerful reminder that kindness can touch people more deeply than we realize.

[u/lightly-placed]

Idk if the point of kindness is to be rewarded. Also I’m sure plenty of workers are really nice to horrible customers that eventually die but they never get anything for their troubles

[u/CharacterGovernment8 → u/lightly-placed]

Kindness should be its own reward for sure

[u/tomayto_potayto → u/CharacterGovernment8]

It already is. But I can't think of any minimum wage workers who would turn down $50,000 for work they've already done, or any reason there's something wrong with it here 🙃

[u/CharacterGovernment8 → u/tomayto_potayto]

I don't think she's wrong for taking the money at all, i certainly would. I just meant don't be kind because ur hoping someone will pay u lol

[u/tomayto_potayto → u/CharacterGovernment8]

I mean this woman clearly didn't, she did it for 7 years consistently. Stories like this aren't really heartwarming because it makes people think they could get $50,000 LOL but because it shows that kindness is appreciated often in ways you would never know in ways that may be really significant to them.

But yeah I was really more adding on to the thread from the top comment, not just your comment specifically. Not to argue lol

[u/CharacterGovernment8 → u/tomayto_potayto]

Sorry i didn't mean to argue either. Im in a terrible mood. I agree with u wholeheartedly lol

[u/tomayto_potayto → u/CharacterGovernment8]

Oh no worries, just trying to clarify :)

[u/inksonpapers → u/CharacterGovernment8]

Shitty people take advantage of this though

[u/EnvironmentalKey7127 → u/[deleted]]

this guy definitely has customer service experience.

[u/KorazKital → u/lightly-placed]

I mean it depends on what kindness.

At work, I'm kind to people because I want to pay rent and provide for my family, not because I care about being a good person to people.

In private, I show kindness to people just because I like doing it, the reward in that case is them having an easier time or getting to smile one more time on a maybe bad day.

[u/LaughingOutLoudAgain → u/KorazKital]

I don’t know your line of work but at my work (or anywhere else for that matter) I’m kind to people because I like people and I also believe life would be better if we were all kind towards each other.

Being kind to someone who’s rude is something else though. I’ve told someone to go away so that the rest of the people could enjoy themselves without one person ruining that.

[u/Haikouden → u/lightly-placed]

Yeah this is some Dhar Mann type shit lol. Getting rewarded for putting up with abuse at work isn’t something to smile about.

We should be encouraging the Walters of the world to be kinder, not the Melinas of the world to put up with their unkindness in the hope of getting rewarded for it.

[u/opuntia_conflict → u/lightly-placed]

I would argue that it isn't kindness if there is an expectation of reward, but it sure is nice when true kindness ends up being rewarded anyways.

[u/Same-Suggestion-1936 → u/[deleted]]

You make more money the nicer you are though, I've worked for tips, you are indeed a circus monkey, you're performing for extra money. Which is fine, I'll take tips to do that, it's so much more money that way

[u/Ok-Possible2344 → u/lightly-placed]

I think the takeaway is that her kindness, despite no signs, was appreciated and meant a lot to him. That people who choose kindness can make invisible impact