iStock/Thinkstock(FORT GRATIOT, Mich.) — A Michigan woman says she bought coffees for two women who insulted her while waiting in line at Tim Hortons in Fort Gratiot, Michigan.
Dianne Hoffmeyer told ABC News affiliate WXYZ-TV that she was at the coffee shop this past Monday with her 22-month-old child when two middle-aged women behind her in line started making mean, hushed comments about her looks.
“‘Oh look at her hair! I’s nasty looking, and the roots are coming through,'” she recalled the women saying. “‘Oh she’s a whale, oh the whale needs to eat.'”
Hoffmeyer added that when she ordered a cappuccino one of the ladies said, “‘Oh, even the whale needs to have liquids. Maybe she should go back into the water.'”
“I just instantly started to cry because it hurts,” Hoffmeyer told WXYZ-TV. “I don’t know the women. I’ve never seen them, met them and I don’t know why they would choose to say something like that.”
But rather than returning hate with hate, Hoffmeyer said she decided to be a role model for her child and show the women kindness.
“I told my cashier ‘I’ll pay for their coffee’ and [the cashier] was like, ‘What!'” Hoffmeyer said.
The chain’s manager, Brittany Sanders, told ABC News that her employees didn’t remember such an incident happening. Nonetheless, Sanders said she and her employees decided to commend Hoffmeyer after hearing her story.
“The next day, we gave her a gift card and a Tim Hortons travel mug, and she was very pleased,” Sanders said. “I felt she did the right thing by killing it with kindness and paying it forward. She handled it very well.”
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