This morning I went to the Waffle House around 6:20am, sat at the low bar, and talked with the waitresses, cooks, and customers as they started their day. I was greeted by a waitress I know well and I admire that will call Sheri. Sheri is a good person and a good mom. Sheri is a single mom who lives in a trailer, and has 3 kids she is raising. One of her children is a special needs child and requires home schooling and extra care. She is also raising her brother’s 2 children. Her brother is a meth addict and the mother of the children is not in the picture. Sheri told me his brother’s children can’t help it their dad is an addict, and they deserve to be loved and taken care of, so she does it. And Sheri takes care of her brother. Like I said her brother is an addict, so she can’t and does not let him stay inside the trailer with them. Her trailer has a back wooden covered porch. So Sheri fixed a pallet for her brother and he stays and sleeps the night/days he is not out somewhere on her back porch. So Sheri is taken care of and raising 5 children and her brother. She works and and is a good waitress.
We said good morning to each other and then I asked her how her Christmas was yesterday. Sheri works at the Waffle House from 6:00am-2:00pm. However, she said yesterday other waitresses called out, they were super busy, so she had to work on Christmas a 14 hour shift from 6:00am-8:00pm. Sheri said by the time she got home and showered, it was 9:00pm before she sat down with her children to have Christmas with them and open their gifts. She said she stayed up last night until 12:30am playing and enjoying Christmas with them. Then she laid down and slept for 4 hours until 4:30am this morning as she had to be at the Waffle House at 6:00am for her shift.
This Is why I so admire Sheri. She is in a hard spot in life, however she works hard, grinds it out living from paycheck to paycheck, and is a good mom. I take her a box of food every Saturday from the House of Harvest for her family. When her clothes washer and dryer went out I worked with Lowes to get new ones to replace them and I installed them. I have been at her trailer several times fixing things or working on her car. And I know of several single mom’s who waitress at the WH who have similar stories they have shared with me as I sat and listened to them sipping my coffee. They all have a wonderful, warm smile and greet me when I walk in the door with the familiar, “Welcome to Waffle House!” Though as I reflect on that greeting it resonates with a deeper meaning like the lyrics “Welcome to the Hotel California.” It is an admittance of and into the reality of life that that allot of its employees, and customers like the lawn care crews who come in the morning before their 12 hours days begin, all belong too. It is a blue collar welcome that most of the after church, Sunday morning crowd coming in miss and do not want to enter into.
However, if Jesus were to come back to earth on a Christmas Evening or day and go out to an establishment, while walking through the door of it he would not hear church bells and greetings of “Oh Come All Ye Faithfull” from people dressed in robes or vestments, but the ding of an opening door and “Welcome to The Waffle House” by those meek wearing a servers apron. It would be something to his ears he could relate to, and would smile at as he walked in the restaurant’s door. And I think a seat at the low or high bar is where you’d find him sitting, eating, sipping his coffee, and listening and speaking into the stories of life being shared around him.
My family, I pray this Christmas you seek out the mangers of this world like Jesus did, and experience and be blessed by entering into the “Welcome To Waffle House” places in your community, in Jesus’ name. God bless you my friends!
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