A Hooters waitress agreed to take a very wholesome, nice picture next to a homeless man. As she was moving away, getting ready to leave, she saw him reach into his pocket. She wasn’t prepared for what he pulled out.
As Morissa Pena pulled into a Hooters location in Phoenix, Arizona, where she worked as a waitress when she’s not working as a professional make-up artist, she happened to glance in her rearview mirror. The Hooters waitress quickly noticed a homeless man sitting on the curb across the street. “His name is Rick. I walk up to him and ask if he’s okay,” Morissa recalled.
“He barely mumbled a ‘no’ and looked down and started sobbing,” Morissa further revealed in a heartbreaking Facebook post that quickly went viral. When Morissa asked a bearded and disheveled Rick if he was hungry, the emotional man answered, “Very.”
That’s when the waitress knew what she had to do. She helped Rick off the ground and linked his arm in hers as she introduced herself and explained that she worked at the Hooters across the street, which would be happy to have him.
After taking Rick into the restaurant, Morissa sat him down and told him he could order whatever he wanted. His meal was on her. Another table then offered to buy him dessert. “He was so grateful,” Morissa wrote in her post. “He told me he was here from Ohio and had been hit by a car, and he couldn’t go to the hospital because he didn’t have even an ID.”
Indeed, Rick didn’t have much at all, but he did have one prized possession. “He showed me his necklace, it has Philippians 4:13 engraved on it. He was telling me how it was the only thing he had,” Morissa continued. “We cried together. He finished up his meal and told me he would never forget my name, my face, and how I had given him hope again.”
Before going their separate ways, Morissa asked Rick if he wanted to take a photo with her. That’s when he reached into his pocket. Leaving the waitress stunned, he “pulled out a small comb and combed his beard for our picture” — a gesture she said was “so cute!” But, Morissa was about to get an even bigger surprise.
“As he goes to leave, he takes off his necklace and hands it to me, and told me he wanted me to have it. I was speechless. I still am. This man gave me the only thing that had any value to him,” a stunned Morissa wrote, sharing an important message with others along with Rick’s story.
“That is a debt I will never be able to repay. I will never forget Rick and the few moments we spent together,” Morissa Pena continued. Then, she pleaded with social media users, writing, “Please, remember to be kind. Remember to help where you can and to do it selflessly. If you can, share this as a reminder, and also so more people can send positive thoughts towards Rick and the other homeless people who need it.”
