This Mother's Day weekend my husband had to work 14-hour shifts on both Saturday and Sunday. This left me at home with our boys as the fulltime parent after working fulltime all week as a teacher in Edmonton. There was no break in sight for this mom on Mother's Day.
However, in the true spirit of making the best of the situation we made a plan to make Mother's Day weekend special. On Thursday my two eight-year-old twin boys asked if they could take me for dinner at East Side Mario's. I thought that this was a wonderful idea. So on Friday Cameron and William took me out for Mother's Day dinner.
We gave the boys a gift card to pay for dinner and they were perfect gentlemen and they were wonderful company too. When we asked for the bill the waitress told us that someone paid for our bill. We were shocked. We looked around for someone that we might recognize, but there was no one. Later, she told us that a gentleman comes in every week and pays for dinner for a family. We were touched and my boys were moved by the gesture. William immediately asked me if we could give the gift card to another family because we received such a wonderful gift.
We talked about how we might share this gift and then the boys settled on giving it to a friend from school who had entered the restaurant with his family. It was his birthday celebration and this gift made his birthday extra special. The gift that was given to us was easy to keep on giving.
On our way home, my son said something that I will never forget. He is a generous boy, yet he said that before this evening he didn't know how truly wonderful it could feel to give. It was an amazing Mother's Day gift for me.
I was so proud of my boys and we sincerely want to thank the gentleman that gave so generously to us. My boys will always remember your generosity and the tremendously important lesson that they learned.
From our family to yours, our sincerest thank you and we will continue to pay it forward.
Audrey Entz Kaplan, St. Albert
