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Inspiration April 14, 2017
The unbelievable donation came after they had already tipped her $400.
Talk about paying it forward. A waitress in Waikiki, Hawaii saw her dreams come true as two diners offered to pay off her student loans.
Cayla Chandara, the lucky recipient, spends most of her time pulling double duty waitressing at The Cheesecake Factory and Noi Thai Cuisine to make ends meet. Exhausting work, I’m sure, but she was certainly at the right place, right time last week.
She hit it off with an Australian couple she was serving at Noi Thai Cuisine, chatting about where they were from, and what brought them to Hawaii. Cayla moved there for school, but had been forced to drop out because she couldn’t afford the cost of living.
The mystery patrons must have been touched by her story, because they left Cayla a whopping $400 tip on their $200 dinner bill. Excuse us while we grab some tissues.
“I just thought it was so generous of them. I never get tipped that big. I had to say thank you,” Cayla told khon2. And since they had told her where they were staying, Cayla dropped by the hotel after work to hand-deliver a thank you card and flowers.
Turns out it really pays to be polite, because the following day Cayla’s benefactors returned to give their beloved waitress another surprise. They wanted to pay off all of her student loans and debt – which racked up to about $10,000.
Cayla refused the shockingly generous offer at first, but they insisted. And though they wished to remain anonymous, Cayla plans to thank them by following through on her dreams and being her “best self.”
“I want to make them proud. I will take this opportunity with an open heart and be a better person that I can be every day,” she said. And we bet she will.
