$1K tip at local restaurant brings 2 people together with special person in common
By JAMIE SHERROD, JAMES PAXSON
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GRAND BLANC, Michigan (WNEM) — It was a thousand-dollar tip at a local restaurant, and it left its recipient understandably surprised. That money was for more than just a job well done.
In fact, it was the tip of a more rewarding moment between the two.
Hollie Lalonde wasn’t expecting the surprises in store as she worked her usual Wednesday night shift waiting tables at Da Edoardo’s in Grand Blanc.
“I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” Lalonde said. “I was getting a table and it wasn’t supposed to be my table.”
She took it and despite the mix up felt a strong unique, connection with the guests.
“It was just a really fun table to wait on,” Lalonde said.
It’s safe to say that feeling was mutual because the man left a big tip with the bartender for Lalonde.
“I open it and it says a thousand dollars and I’m like this is not real,” Lalonde said.
Shocked was an understatement. She searched for a name on the receipt to reach out and thank him finding a Jon Dam.
The thousand-dollar tip wasn’t from a complete stranger. It turns out they had someone in common.
“And I was like I wonder if he’s related to Mary Lou Dam the lady that took care of me when I was a child when I had no one,” Lalonde said.
In fact, he was her son, and you could say Lalonde was his unofficial foster sister.
Dam says he never met Lalonde because he was away at college but remembers his mother taking care of a nearby family.
“She took them Thanksgiving, Christmas gifts,” Dam said.
Dam grew up in Grand Blanc but lives in Colorado now. His mother died 16 years ago from lung cancer.
It was only by chance he interacted with Lalone because he was in town for that one night catching up with a high school friend.
“It’s really crazy that I was even in Grand Blanc that night that she was waiting tables that night,” Dam said.
That chance encounter came at a time where Lalonde needed it most, after a difficult year.
“And I was just questioning if there’s a god yesterday and now, I believe in god and I haven’t for many years,” Lalonde said.
And turning into a lifetime of friendship.
“He said that I’m going to be in his life forever and he was going to be here for me for the rest of my life like his mom would want him to be,” Lalonde said.
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