“It just restores your faith in people.”
A dad shared that thinking after he was overcome with emotion when a stranger paid for his family’s breakfast — and left a heartfelt message on the receipt as well.
Dr. J Mack Slaughter, 41, an emergency room physician, was enjoying breakfast out with his wife and three children at Mimi’s Café in Fort Worth, Texas, in early January, as news agency SWNS reported.
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As the dad of three was getting ready to pay, their waitress at the restaurant surprised him by saying the family’s $85.21 bill had already been settled by someone.
She handed him the receipt.
The dad found a handwritten note on it. (See the video at the top of this article.)
J Mack Slaugher, an emergency room physician and father of three in Texas, holds up the note that a stranger wrote on his restaurant receipt. (J Mack Slaughter/SWNS)
It read, “Thank you for being a great dad.”
Flipping over the receipt, Slaughter also found another note from the stranger.
The message read: “From a dad to a dad. Thank you for being the dad they need you to be regardless of who’s watching.”
“Thank you for being the dad they need you to be regardless of who’s watching.”
The note went on, “We need more men like you. Thank you for letting us all see your love for them all.”
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It was signed, “From a retired Army medic.”
The doctor from Fort Worth said, “I immediately welled up. I couldn’t control my tears,” as SWNS reported.
One of Dr. Slaughter’s children is shown at the restaurant. “Thank you for being a great dad,” wrote a stranger on the family’s breakfast receipt. (J Mack Slaughter/SWNS)
He added, “There was nobody watching for my reaction. The person was already gone. It was just pure kindness.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the physician and dad for further comment.
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Slaughter had been playing a simple dot game with his kids at the café, he said, and was completely unaware that someone had been observing him during his time with his family.
Slaughter, who regularly witnesses tragic events in his work in the ER, said the act restored his faith in humanity, SWNS said.
Slaughter with his wife and children. “We need more men like you who are going to be there for their kids whether people are watching or not,” wrote a stranger out of the blue. (J Mack Slaughter/SWNS)
Said Slaughter, “I see some of the most terrible things in the world. But this reminded me that complete strangers can do miraculous, beautiful things when you least expect it.”
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He added, “It was just $85 to [the stranger] — but to me, it was so much more.”
Slaughter said that “random acts of kindness are so powerful.”
The breakfast receipt had a heartfelt and surprising note written on it. (J Mack Slaughter/SWNS)
“They remind us that despite all the bad in the world, there’s so much good, too.”
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Slaughter is active on social media. He’s also the founder of a nonprofit organization called Music Meets Medicine, which donates instruments and “teaching time to teenagers being treated in children’s hospitals,” as its website notes.
