For every story of an angry anonymous note, there is a comforting tale of compassion and comfort, and it’s people like Tony Posnanski who need to be acknowledged for making a difference with their small but significant gestures.
Tony took to Facebook to pen an open letter, via the ‘Love What Matters’ page, addressing ‘the woman and child who sat at table 9’ in his restaurant recently.
A manager for 15 years, Tony explained that he has had to deal with many complaints and tricky situations during his time at the restaurant.
Tony recounted how, recently, he was asked to deal with a particular complaint. When he spoke to the patrons in question, they pointed over at table 9, complaining that the little girl sitting there was being loud and asking him to do something about it.
Having had to deal with this situation on many occasions before, Tony approached the table and was ready to have a word, but the mother beat him to it – and changed his entire perspective.
"To the woman and child who sat at table 9,I did not introduce myself to you. My name is Tony Posnanski. I have been a...
Posted by Love What Matters on Monday, March 14, 2016
He recalled: “I started to walk to your table. You knew what I was going to ask. You saw the table I just spoke to pointing at you. I got to your table and you looked at me. You wanted the first word. You said…’Do you know what it is like to have a child with Autism?’”
“You were not rude when you asked the question. In fact, you were quite sincere. Your daughter could not have been more than five years old. She was beautiful and looked scared that I was at the table. She looked like she thought she was in trouble,” he added.
It turned out to be a day to remember for Tony, who revealed in the candid Facebook post how her words made him think of the days when his own children were born into the world, and when he lost one of them.
Tony decided to be led by compassion, writing: “I know what I was supposed to say when I went to your table. I was supposed to politely tell you to please not have your daughter yell. I was supposed to offer to move you to another area. I was supposed to offend you by not offending you…I did not do any of that. Instead I just told you I hoped your meal was awesome. I high-fived your daughter and then I told you that your meal was on us tonight. It was only sixteen dollars. It meant more to me than that. I do not think the other guests I spoke to were happy about it. At that moment it did not matter to me.”
In that moment, Tony knew that this mother had been through this rigmarole before, and he didn’t want to become just another uninformed person jumping to conclusions. But while Tony undoubtedly gave this family a positive experience, he further revealed that they taught him an important lesson in turn.
“Sometimes doing the right thing does not make everyone happy; just the people who need it the most,” he added.
