Meeting A Living Saint

Fairbanks, AK. Time for supper. We found the downtown restaurant recommended to us. The tall waiter was frantically, and apologetically busy. Service a bit slow, a busy place, but the food was good.

Here are the stories that will stay in my memory.

Two older women came in. One even paused at our table to tell us how old she was. They were seated at a table behind us. I overheard them telling the waiter, "We'll have whatever is on tonight,” which I thought was curious. It was later when they were ready to go, I again overheard, this time the waiter telling the ladies, “No charge, you let me know what I can do for you, if you need help, I’ll do what I can.”

Another man enters. The waiter greets him as I once again overhear, “Come on back, wait for me, I’ll take care of you.” I am only guessing from the man’s appearance, but I assumed he was homeless.

I started to realize, this owner and waiter was taking care of people! His restaurant was also a personal mission for feeding the hungry! 

Another memory clip from the evening. A confession. At our table of four we had entered into some conversation about politics. A person from another table decided to enter in. Our waiter was by our table in a flash, with a friendly voice announced, “No, politics tonight.”

When the business of the restaurant subsided, our waiter came over and joined us. He explained that too often politics had become a shouting match in his restaurant, and that he had a number of people who didn’t understand how to turn it off once they started. We did, however, continued into a heart felt discussions about some of his and our passions.

When it came time to leave we stood and received hugs from our waiter.

I left with a mesmerizing feeling that I had just been in the presence of a real live saint. A bit quirky, I find most of the real saints are, but a genuine person who lives life doing what his heart tells him to do. I left inspired, a bit more appreciative of life and feeling I had found a sense of hope in this corner of the world.