And no it wasn’t stacking her dirty dishes or leaving a decent tip behind – it was coming back with her apron, ready to work.
Fiona and Effie, the owners of Miss Effie’s Kitchen in Noosaville, only opened the cafe in July last year and said they were blown away by the local woman’s act of kindness.
Fiona told news.com.au Janet was a regular customer and had mentioned while eating breakfast there that she would come back – but they had thought she was joking.
“I was standing by the coffee machine and she came back and said ‘I’ve got my apron, I’m here to work’. I think my jaw dropped,” Fiona said.
While Noosaville is a popular holiday spot, Fiona said the cafe was actually in a medical and professional centre so they relied on local customers instead of tourists.
“We’ve really worked by word-of-mouth and since Christmas it’s just been getting busier and busier, and we’ve struggled a little bit to keep up with the demand and keep the cafe staffed,” she said.
On the day Janet helped out one staff member was away and another had called in sick, leaving them with only three workers.
Janet refused payment for her time and would not take home the free food she was offered.
Fiona said she and Effie loved their customers and the support they had showed them since opening.
“You making other people happy through food really does feed your soul, of course you need to make money at the end of the day but I didn’t appreciate how fulfilling this whole thing would be,” she said.
Fiona and Effie shared Janet’s surprising act on a Noosa community Facebook page last week.
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“We know we must be doing something right when a dear customer hears that we are 2 staff members down while she is finishing her breakfast, heads home and comes back an hour later with her apron in hand and says she is here to help us today and starts washing our dishes,” the post said, with a photo of Janet smiling with a dish towel in hand.
“What a superstar, thank you Janet … we are truly grateful and really appreciate all you did for us today.”
A second post on the cafe’s own page added that Janet returned at 7am the next morning to see if they needed her again.
