You know you’ve got a special set of customers on your hands when they walk in and ask for the restaurant’s grumpiest server. But when that happened at a Cracker Barrel in Lincoln, Neb., the hostess said there weren’t any cranky servers. The customers wanted to make someone laugh, so instead the hostess sat them with the place’s happiest server. And she’d soon be even happier.

The 18-year-old waitress greeted the customers and took their order, reports the Lincoln Journal Star, and they in turn asked her why she was so happy.

During the course of their visit, she explained her whole life story — a tough childhood after her parents were in a car crash and then a horrible time in foster care with her siblings, with what she said was an abusive family.

They were split up again and more troubles hit the family until the kids were reunited nine years ago in a loving home.

“It’s a great home, great people, amazing,” the waitress explained. “I don’t know how I would have turned out if I didn’t have them. They shaped the person I am today.”

Then she told her curious customers about her future, which at the moment was at a bit of a crossroads as she didn’t have enough money to pay for her next semester at college. She was saving up her tips and applying for financial aid in the hopes that she could go back next fall.

All that she’s been through and where she was headed, that’s why she was so happy, she explained to the two customers.

Finally when the men were finished eating, one explained that he had graduated from the same college she had attended. Then he opened his checkbook and wrote a check to the college for $5,000 for her tuition, another $1,000 made out to her for whatever she wanted, and a $100 cash tip which she split with another server.

You’ve got to admit, sounds a lot nicer than simple turning a grump’s frown upside down.

Lincoln waitress receives the tip of a lifetime [Lincoln Journal Star]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.