Today on the radio show, Glenn shared the amazing story of a restaurant staff that went out of their way to make a young, autistic girl's day just a little bit better.
Glenn read from TheBlaze:
Anna Kaye MacLean explained in the post that she and her husband took her younger sister to Chili’s where she ordered her usual favorite — cheeseburger with pickles and French fries with a chocolate milk — promptly when the waitress, Lauren, came to get drink orders.When the food was delivered MacLean said she asked her sister why she wasn’t eating her Krabby Patty, a reference to the hamburger joint in the cartoon show SpongeBob Square Pants.
“She replied, ‘It’s broken. I need another one thats fixed,’” MacLean’s Facebook post read. “Then it dawned on me why she wasn’t eating it. It’s because it was cut in half. Being a child with autism, she has to have certain things in a particular order at all times. One slight change in her routine can change the course of the day instantly.”
MacLean told the waitress when she returned that she needed to order a new burger, which they would happily pay for, that wasn’t cut down the middle. Here’s what happened next:
Lauren was so sweet and just smiled and went along with Arianna, telling her “I brought you a broken cheeseburger?! You know what, I’ll have them cook you a new one!” I loved this because rather than just taking it from the table, she actually TOLD Arianna what she was doing. While this seems insignificant, by her telling Arianna what she was doing, we avoided a melt down. The manager, Bradley Cottermole, then came to our table, kneeled down, and said to Arianna, “I heard we gave you a broken cheeseburger! I am so sorry about that! We are making you a brand new one that isn’t broken, with pickles! I’ll bring you some french fries to munch on while you’re waiting, ok?” A couple of minutes later, Lauren arrived back at our table with cheeseburger #2.
The little girl thanked Lauren for fixing her cheeseburger, turned to the sandwich to say ”OH I missed you!!” and began kissing it. That’s when MacLean snapped the photo posted above and showed it to Lauren who in turn took it to the manager and the kitchen staff who all got a kick out of it.
"This is the way we're supposed to be. This is the way a manager of a restaurant is supposed to be. Not because he's going to get his name on the Internet or be praised or anything like that. Just because that's the way we treat each other. That's the way we do business. We treat each other with respect," Glenn said.
Glenn encouraged people to tell others when they see stories and service like this. But he also said it's a two-way street and that we also need to be the kind of people who go out of their way to help others and make their day better.
"But it's also our responsibility to be that own person in our own life in our own job. No matter how poorly we were treated. To go the extra mile," Glenn said.