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Waitress shares the startling note a man left on his receipt that had her 'sobbing mid-shift'

She had no idea their simple conversation had meant so much.

@k8tymilla/TikTok

"It broke me."

We simply never know what someone else is going through, nor do we know how a simple bit of connection can offer so much healing.

Twenty-five-year-old server Katie Miller certainly never would have anticipated that a seemingly ordinary conversation between her and a couple dining at her restaurant would lead to her getting a handwritten note that left her "sobbing mid shift.”

But as the scribblings left on the back of the receipt revealed, this was the couple’s first outing since losing their 27-year-old daughter, and apparently Miller offered them a precious gift: an opportunity to smile once again.

handwritten note, server, server life, waitress, tipping, restaurant, kindness, note on bill, grief, connection, losing a daughter TikTok · Katie Miller www.tiktok.com

The note read:

“Thank you for your wonderful service. Our 27-year-old daughter passed away unexpectedly about 5 weeks ago and today is the first day I have been able to get my wife out to enjoy a real meal. Thank you for making her smile. You will never know what it means to us.”

What did Miller and this woman talk about that lifted her spirits? Hair and aging. Miller shared with Newsweek that she complimented the woman’s "beautiful curly red hair," noting how “people nowadays are dying their hair to look like hers.” The woman then laughingly admitted she dyed her hair to cover some grays. Miller quipped that she just plucked hers out. That’s it. Such a normal, everyday conversation, but it made such a lasting impact.

handwritten note, server, server life, waitress, tipping, restaurant, kindness, note on bill, grief, connection, losing a daughter " You will never know what it means to us.”@k8tymilla/TikTok

Then, after seeing the note left for her, Miller told Newsweek, "You would never have guessed. It broke me. It hurts knowing people are struggling like that." Though she didn’t approach the couple again, she decided to share the story on TikTok to help remind others that "Kindness goes a long way. We can truly heal others if we're nice.”

From the slew of similar stories shared by fellow service workers in the comment section, we can take solace in the fact that these occurrences maybe aren’t as rare as we think they are.

“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 it crumbled.”

“One time while working in retail I was checking out these items for this older woman and I complimented her necklace. She started crying and telling me how her late husband gifted it to her. She said I made her day.”

“I had a customer ask me how old my kid was after talking about him for a while. Customer paid up and said ‘your kid is 5, correct/’ I said yes sir. Handed my 5 $100 bills and said ‘use this for him please.’ His grandson passed away, also 5. I haven’t cried that hard in my adult life ever.”

“One time I worked at Sonic, I took a woman’s drink out to her, she was sobbing alone in her car. I felt weird asking but something in me felt it was necessary…she told me her daughter had just recently tried to take her own life and was in the hospital, she wasn't sure if she would make it and was beside herself with sadness. I opened the door and just hugged her. For a moment we both needed that hug. She told me I reminded her of her daughter and how beautiful she is when she smiled. Even since then I learned to always be kind.

“We were really busy one night when I was working the bar at a restaurant I used to work at in college. I noticed a man a few rows back, just waiting in the crowd. Never moving forward. He hadn’t been served and was very hesitant looking worried. I decided to approach him…turned out he was deaf and just super overwhelmed. We wrote back and forth that evening and I made sure I stayed on top of his service. When he left, he handed me a note, and in it he told me he gets ignored a lot in busy places…The last line said, ‘thank you for SEEING me’…it broke my heart thinking about how ppl had overlooked him so often. I’m so glad I could at least make THAT night better for him. I cried in the kitchen for a good bit after he left.”

“One lady at the bar I bartended at was staring at me so oddly during the whole time I was taking care of them…honeslty I thought she didn’t like me. But before they left she came up to me and said ‘this might be weird but it is so good to meet you again’ and handed me a note [that] said I looked and talked and walked, even smiled like her best friend that had passed a few years ago…I cried so hard;I keep it in my glove box now.”

Interacting with strangers is a necessary part of life. Then again, life has a way of reminding us that none of us are really strangers at all. We all carry pain, we all seek out connection, and we all need help finding a reason to smile from time to time. May this be a friendly reminder to be that person for someone else, whenever possible.

handwritten note, server, server life, waitress, tipping, restaurant, kindness, note on bill, grief, connection, losing a daughter Go out and be kind today. @k8tymilla/TikTok

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Golden Retriever with remarkable healing skills earns the total trust of a terrified kitten

Toby's emotional intelligence appears to be off the charts.

Photo credit: Canva

Golden Retrievers are known for being gentle and friendly, but Toby is on another level.

Animals sometimes have behaviors that baffle or surprise us, for better and for worse. Sometimes our pets' quirks drive us bonkers and other times they delight us, but occasionally, an extra special pet will have abilities that astound everyone who encounters them. Enter Toby, the Golden Retriever with a very special talent for healing traumatized rescue animals.

Mirai is a rescued stray kitten who experienced severe physical and emotional trauma, including a serious neck injury that left her with stitches across her throat. After weeks of physical healing, she was introduced to a cat that was already mothering a litter, who began caring for Mirai as one of her own. But the tiny kitten was still wary and fearful.

Then she was introduced to Toby, a dog with remarkable sensitivity, who completely earned her trust in just three meetings. At first, she hissed and growled at him, but he was patient and persistent, never becoming aggressive or pushing past her boundaries. Toby responded to Mirai's fear and discomfort signals with an emotional intelligence many humans don't even exhibit, never going too far too fast. Seeing the way he gradually wins her over is a master class.

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

People loved seeing Toby's gentle ways.

"That's one heck of a fine therapy dog! He's got a gift."

"Toby is better at reading and understanding her signals and backing off when she makes it clear she's stressed out than most humans are."

"If humans had the hearts of golden retrievers, there would be peace on earth forever."

"Toby is a special guy. So sweet and patient. Its like he knows it's his job to make that baby feel safe."

"Toby is a natural empath and nurturer whose patience is amazing."

Mirai isn't the first rescued baby that Toby has helped to heal, and Toby isn't even the only sensitive Golden Retriever in the family. Toby's sister, Candy, also has an impressive gift for building bonds with traumatized animals.

A puppy named Den, who had been severely abused, was introduced to Toby and Candy one at a time. And though it took some time for her to warm up to each of them, their patience and perseverance eventually resulted in beautiful bonds of friendship.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Again, people gushed about how these good doggos always manage to win over even the most timid and fearful of creatures.

"Goldens: you are going to be my friend. I'll wait."

"Goldens are such a wise and gentle breed."

"Beautiful. I wish people would be as kind, patient and loving as these 2 Goldies. The world would sure be a kinder place."

"Those doggies are so smart! They know exactly what to do! From avoiding eye contact, laying down to her level, not getting into her personal space, and not being forceful about it, they are so kind and intelligent and deserve an extra treat!"

"My date once told me that I have the personality of a golden retriever. I took that as a compliment."

Indeed, Golden Retrievers are known for their friendly, patient personalities, and though there are exceptions to every rule, it's rare to find a Golden Retriever with a mean streak. However, even among Goldens, Toby and Candy appear to be exceptionally intuitive and perceptive, making them perfect companions for rescued kittens and puppies who need to some extra tender loving care as they learn to trust.

Animals that have been rescued from abuse or neglect situations have needs that sometimes another animal can best provide. Humans can do a lot for vulnerable animals—and they should—but there's something special about having companions on your own level to play and snuggle with as well. Friends like Toby and Candy can help heal emotional wounds we can't see, and that's just as important as healing the ones we can.

You can follow Toby and Candy on YouTube.

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Scientists develop sensors that could heal bones in weeks, not months

These tiny implants could make a big difference in healing broken bones

www.canva.com

At the University of Oregon, scientists have created a potential medical breakthrough— well, technically a “mend-through.” These researchers have created tiny implants that could help speed up the healing process of mending broken bones.

If you have suffered a broken bone, you know that proper healing requires a combination of rest, rehabilitation, and time. Your doctor likely prescribed various physical therapy exercises and increased their intensity to ensure that the bone is properly mended at top strength and mobility.

However, the key to completing recovery is finding a balance. Too little and infrequent resistance exercise won’t help “encourage” the bone enough to build strength as it heals. Too much training and the injury could become worse. Depending on the severity of the break, it could take months for a broken leg or arm to heal completely since it is difficult to determine if the bone is strong enough for more intense rehabilitation or if it still needs less resistance training to prevent harm. Recovery time also varies from person to person, too.

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That’s the issue the researchers at the University of Oregon tackled. They created a series of small implants with sensors that can provide data in real time at the injury site to help better determine if a bone needs more resistance rehab or if it has been overworked. In a technological study, the implants “significantly improved” the healing time for broken femurs in lab rats, cutting down a healing time from four-to-six months down to as little as eight weeks.

“One of the most impactful aspects of this work is that our resistance rehabilitation could regenerate the femur to normal strength within eight weeks without biological stimulants, and we’re really excited about that,” said study leader Dr. Kylie Williams.

While monitoring their bones using the sensors, the researchers found that the rodents that were given proper physical therapy in their exercise wheels with increasing resistance to promote building strength had their femurs heal much faster and more effectively than rodents that were sedentary. This included rodents that needed their training lowered at times depending on the data retrieved from the sensors.

After seeing such positive results, campus-startup Penderia Technologies is working on perfecting the implants to a battery-free, wearable version for human patients to monitor their progress.

Recovery of any sort is a push/pull process. Depending on where you’re at, you might need to further push yourself forward, even when it isn’t comfortable. On the other hand, you might need to pull back a little bit at certain points to make sure you’re not overwhelming yourself.

Finding the balance is tricky but doable. It especially helps when you know that you’re not alone. You can also find support in your family, friends, physicians, and therapists in your life. If not those people, whatever you have experienced has been experienced before, no matter what your “broken bone” is. Whether it’s a bad habit you wish to get rid of, a new goal in your life, or a literal broken bone, it has impacted someone else that you can learn from. There are resources available to help you determine whether you need to push yourself a little harder or when to rest and recover.

Healing something that’s broken takes a combination of effort, rest, and time. That’s not just for femurs, that’s for everything.

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32 years separate this before and after of a beautiful Washington forest. Take a look.

Our relationship with our planet can be mutually beneficial if we commit ourselves to sustainability.

Left photo from Records of the Environmental Protection Agency; Right, by Miguel Vieira/Flickr.

A return to green over decades.


Douglas Scott grew up on Washington's Olympic Peninsula in the dying shadow of the timber industry that had supported the region for decades.

"Nearly every home had a bright orange or yellow sign reading 'This home supported by timber dollars,'" Scott wrote on Outdoor Society.

While the region has also been recognized for its succulent seafood, temperate climate, and stunning natural formations, nothing shaped the community — or the physical landscape — quite like logging did.

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Logging repercussions felt on the Olympic Peninsula.

Olympic Peninsula, circa 1972. Photo from the Records of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The tension in the air between the loggers and the environmentalists throughout the 1980s was thicker than the trees being cut down.

"I heard from old timers in the Harbor about how environmentalists were ruining the region, and I was told by environmentalists that loggers were killing everything in sight," Scott recalled.

But to understand the full impact of deforestation on the region, it helps to take the bird's eye view.

Here's a satellite image of the Olympic Peninsula from 1984. The white region in the center are the mountaintops in Olympic National Park; you'll also notice the grey and brown areas along the western and northern coasts of the peninsula.

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Satellite image of deforestation on the region of the Olympic Peninsula.

Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.

"When I moved away from the area in 1997, there wasn't much of a logging or mill economy in dozens of towns around the region," Scott said.

By that time, tourism had begun to take the place of timber as the region's major industry — which was probably helped along by the fact that the trees were slowly but surely starting to recover, enhancing the already stunning vistas that drew visitors.

Here's how the Olympic Peninsula looked by the time that Scott and his family left the area; you'll notice the western and northern coasts are just a little bit greener than they were 13 years prior...

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Some green coming back.

Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.

Those great green arbors continued their gradual recovery into the 2000s...

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More forest returns to the peninsula.

Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.

And they're still going today.

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And still more green comes back.

Screenshot via GoogleEarth Engine.

But those isolated moments don't tell the whole story of the region's recovery. It's even more remarkable when you can see it in action...

habitat, climate change, going green

Olympic Peninsula demonstrating the power of nature.

GIF via GoogleEarth Engine.

We don't always notice the world changing right before our eyes, but the decades-long view of the Olympic Peninsula shows the true power of nature.

It's not just the trees, either; according to Scott, the replenished forests have also had a positive impact on the local salmon population and other treasured natural resources.

erosion, growth, wildlife, earth

Mother Nature doing her thing.

Left photo from Records of the Environmental Protection Agency; Right, by Miguel Vieira/Flickr.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't use the natural world, of course. We still need wood, for example, but now we know there are sustainable ways to use it without recklessly damaging to the planet.

The Earth was built to take care of itself. We just need to let Mother Nature do her thing.


This article originally appeared on 12.22.16

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