Lovely

When a recently-widowed Canadian man dining
alone picked up the tab for a couple sitting nearby
last week, he never expected his act of kindness
to go viral. But someone snapped a picture of the sweet note
he left explaining why he'd taken care of the bill,
and when the photo made its way to Reddit, it quickly spread, touching people around the world. Lee Ballantyne, 65, of Barrie, Ontario lost his
wife, Carol on December 30th. He was eating by
himself at local restaurant Cicco’s when seeing
the couple next to him reminded him of his late
wife, which inspired his spontaneous act of
generosity. “I just wanted to write what I felt at the time so I
scrawled it on a napkin,” Ballantyne told
TODAY.com. "You don’t know me, but my beautiful wife of 43
years died last week," read his handwritten note. "Tonight I dined alone for the first time. You
remind me of us many years ago. Please allow me
to buy your dinner. It will put a smile on Carol’s
face and make me happy… for now." Ballantyne handed the note to the waitress and
asked her to put the couple’s bill on his credit
card before leaving. The waitress asked Cicco’s
owner Lindsay Weiss to help her present the
unexpected gesture to the diners. Weiss said the reaction was emotional for
everyone. “They [the couple] were beyond
touched and grateful. I cried. The waitress and
chef cried. It was one of the kindest gestures I’ve
ever witnessed,” Weiss told TODAY.com. Ballantyne was surprised to get a phone call later
that evening from the diner who'd received his
note. The man thanked him for the meal and
expressed his condolences, and said he and his
wife would like to take Ballantyne to dinner in
the near future. Several Cicco’s staff members posted the note on
social media to spread news of the good deed,
and in just a few days, it had spread across the
Internet as hundreds of thousands of people were
moved by Ballantyne’s act. “It was just a simple gesture and it seemed like
an ideal time to do that. I guess I had a selfish
motive, I wanted to make myself feel good. And
it did for a while. It still does,” Ballantyne said. Carol, who was 62 when she died, had
experienced several health problems in recent
years. She was diagnosed with lupus and
fibromyalgia five years ago, and suffered from
chronic bowel obstructive disease, which required
her to be fed intravenously for more than a year. In October, facing lung cancer, she chose to
undergo chemotherapy treatments but her
immune system was not strong enough to handle
them. Lee and Carol had three sons and five
grandchildren. The family was astounded by how
quickly the photo of Lee’s note spread online,
where it has been viewed over 800,000 times, prompting news stories across the globe. Ballantyne says the family is grateful for the
opportunity to share Carol’s memory with the
world. “My wife’s strength and joy of life is now known
to millions of people just because of that gesture
so I accomplished something there. I’m glad
people got to know a little about Carol,“
Ballantyne said.