A bartender who is the caregiver to her triplet grandsons received a $300 tip.
Shiela Weisgerber, 48, of Lisbon, North Dakota, has been raising her 4-year-old triplet grandsons, Bentley, Ashton and Dalton, on her own for most of their lives. As their mother is a 30-year-old single parent who already had a toddler, she was not able to take care of three more children.
“She tried to do it, and when the boys were two months, she said she couldn’t do it, so I stepped in and offered to raise the boys,” Weisgerber told ABC News.
The boys’ father died in a car crash in February, Inforum notes.
Although taking care of the boys was “very overwhelming” at the beginning, Weisgerber said she is glad to have the opportunity to watch them grow up.
“I love children and it wasn’t in my cards to have more,” she told Inforum. “And now I’ve been blessed to raise the boys. If I was asked to do it over again, I would. These little guys are a true blessing.”
On April 30, Weisgerber was speaking to some regular customers at the First and Last Chance Bar, where she has worked full-time since October 2015. A couple overheard the grandmother talking about her family.
“And they were like, ‘Holy cow! Triplets?’” Weisgerber recalled to ABC News.
She then showed the couple a picture of the children, and when they paid for their meal, they gave Weisgerber a $300 tip and wrote “Take care of those boys!” on the receipt.
“I was in disbelief at first,” she said. “I looked at it, and I looked at it again. You read stuff about it, and you hear about it, and you wonder, ‘Is that really true? Do people really do that?’”
According to Weisgerber’s April 30 Facebook post, she was so overcome with emotion that she cried in the bathroom for a few minutes.
“Words can’t describe how grateful I am,” she told Inforum. “You know there’s good out there. It helps, and it will help the boys later.”
Dave Cole, the owner of the bar, said the community was happy to hear about the incident.
“The last few months have been really hard with random deaths around here,” Cole explained. “We really needed a boost. This was a godsend. Literally, it made everybody brighten up.”
After the boys’ father died, Weisgerber opened savings accounts for the children. Each boy will receive $100 from the tip.
Sources: ABC, Shiela Weisgerber/Facebook, Inforum / Photo Credit: Shiela Weisgerber/Facebook
