Lottery Winner Leaves $10,000 Tip for Diner Owner Whose Daughter Is Fighting Cancer
A diner owner from Chamberlain in Saskatchewan, Canada, was recently overwhelmed with emotion after a man who won $25 million in the British Columbia lottery last year paid for his meal of a burger and fries with a $10,000 check and told him to keep the change to help his young daughter who is suffering from cancer.
According to the Montreal Gazette, diner owner Cliff Luther was working at his restaurant when one of his customers, Bob Erb asked him for a pen so he could pay for his meal with a check. He then wrote down $10,000 for the burger and fries meal that left the diner owner in shock.
Luther was "so overwhelmed, so befuddled by it that I ended up having to flip my own burger because he was real emotional," Erb told the Gazette when he was asked about the diner owner's reaction.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The two men had met a week earlier when Erb stopped by Luther's restaurant, the Old West Express, with his girlfriend Jenny.
Erb, a marijuana activist, was traveling from the couple's home in Terrace, B.C., to Yellow Grass, Sask., to inter his father's ashes on family property.
The lottery winner, who was wearing a lot of gear supporting the legalization of marijuana, was soon asked by Luther about a particular pin on his jacket.
"He was telling me how he thinks legalizing marijuana is the way to go, you know, which was interesting," Luther told the Gazette on Monday.
"One thing came to another, and he's from B.C. and I was telling him how my 25-year-old daughter is out there right now and has just been diagnosed with cancer."
Luther's plight resonated with Erb whose son died at 26 some 4 1/2 years ago.
"He was emotional about it, just as any parent would be in that kind of situation," Erb noted.
He said he also liked the diner owner's "open-mindedness, and how he was just looking to talk and to learn about things from another perspective."
So on his way back from burying his father's ashes, Erb stopped at Luther's diner again, ordered a meal and blessed him with the check shortly afterwards.
"He asked for a pen and said: 'Here, you can just take the bill out of that,'" Luther recalled. "It was a check for $10,000. He just kind of said 'If you need to get out there quickly, this will help you.'"
Luther has yet to cash the check but he noted, "It certainly lightens the load for us."
"You kind of think: 'Why would someone do that for somebody they don't even know?'" said Luther. "It's really lifted my spirits. There are just some really caring people out there."
