The Daily Populous Saturday April 12nd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by today.com and submitted by jackytheblade

An 81-year-old waitress just got the tip of a lifetime.

Tamie Konzier, a Pittsburgh-area esthetician and TikToker, was recently grabbing a bite with her young son Leo at a local restaurant called Eat’n Park when she noticed her friendly server Betty was struggling to get around.

She then overheard the octogenarian confiding to another patron that she was suffering from chronic back pain but needed the job because her $910 monthly social security payout wasn’t nearly enough to cover her bills.

Moved by Betty’s plight, Konzier thought fast. She immediately deployed the power of TikTok and began recording their interaction. “If I can make one video go viral, let it be this one,” Konzier prefaced her post, then offered to give any proceeds the TikTok Creator Rewards Program might generate from the post to Betty.

In the meantime, she emptied her wallet.

“I have $40 in my purse, and that’s what I’m going to leave her for a tip,” she said. “She can’t hardly walk,” Leo added to the camera.

Betty was touched. “I worked all my life as a waitress and I can’t retire,” she told Konzier, gratefully. Her sense of humor and undeterred resilience was moving. “I’m 81, but I can still outdo all these whippersnappers,” she cracked.

When Konzier and her son said goodbye, Betty said, “Take care and enjoy life because it’ll go by you fast!”

Just as Konzier had hoped, her post went viral and, within just 24 hours, Konzier had so many comments and offers to donate, she had to learn how to put together a GoFundMe for Betty.

“People are asking if they can CashApp or Venmo me, and I can do that as well, if you trust me,” she said. “I mean, I trust me.”

The following day, Konzier was moved to tears by the overwhelming response to her plea. “Thank you for your generosity,” she said. “I don’t even know her and I’m crying!”

At that point, the GoFundMe raised $110,000, and she had garnered an additional $3,200 Venmo donations for the waitress.

The tally had grown to $140,000 when Konzier told Betty what she’d been up to on TikTok. “I think I better get a financial adviser!” Betty cracked, clearly stunned. “You’re God!”

“I promise I’m not,” said Konzier. “I didn’t know it was going to go this big!”

“You don’t know what this is going to help me for,” Betty told her.

“I hope it helps you with everything,” said Konzier. “Bills … maybe you can go on a trip or something.”

“You know, my family and I are having financial difficulties, and this could take care of it,” Betty responded.

Konzier burst into tears of joy. “I’m so happy for you! You deserve it.”

With each subsequent TikTok update Konzier posted about Betty’s fundraiser, the GoFundMe amount swelled, requiring the retention of an attorney to set up a trust for the waitress.

“Remember, I’m just a regular person,” said Konzier in an update concerning Betty about trying to figure out the logistics of safely transferring the funds, while reiterating Betty’s wish to stay off-camera.

Finally, on April 2, Konzier and her son Leo returned to Eat’n Park to share the total of the GoFundMe with Betty: a whopping $328,739.18.

“She is a sweet, deserving woman,” Konzier shared after the fact, sharing Betty’s gratitude with the TikTok masses. It just goes to show any one of us could look at another human being and, through a simple selfless act, change their lives for the better.

For that, Konzier is grateful, too: “I’m so glad that we were put in this place at a certain time and we raised this money for her to enjoy the rest of her life.”

WolfDoc on April 12nd, 2025 at 07:00 UTC »

Nice of everyone to contribute, but the fact that this is needed in the US made me more depressed than uplifted

Bennnnetttt on April 12nd, 2025 at 03:10 UTC »

“Why can’t we do this for everyone?!”

votes against helpful programs.

Powered-by-Chai on April 12nd, 2025 at 02:30 UTC »

If only there was a way that everyone in America could pitch in a little money and then people could retire when they reached a certain age...