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Watch a stranger pay a family's restaurant bill to honor a 'great dad'

Watch a stranger pay a family's restaurant bill to honor a 'great dad'

USA Today12-02-2025
A father was left in tears over a random act of kindness from a stranger during a family breakfast.
Doctor J Mack Slaughter was at a restaurant in Texas with his wife and three children when they asked for the bill. To their surprise, the waitress told them a stranger who'd been watching them had paid their $85 bill before he left. She then handed them the receipt and a note from the man.
Watch the video above to hear the appreciative words that left a father in tears.
The note, from one dad to another, thanked Dr. J Mack for being the father his family needed.
"I immediately welled up. I couldn't control my tears," the doctor explained. "These random acts of kindness are so powerful. They remind us that despite all the bad in the world, there is so much good, too."
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Take a moment to watch these other random acts of kindness captured on camera!
During Random Acts of Kindness Week, starting on February 9, we celebrate the many good deeds that help make the world a better place. The phrase 'practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty' was coined in 1982 by magazine writer and editor Anne Herbert.
Thirteen years later, her words inspired the creation of Random Acts of Kindness Week by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, encouraging people to be kind and pay it forward.
There are many ways to participate in Random Acts of Kindness Week, from big gestures like donating blood to simpler acts like paying for a stranger's coffee or walking a friend's dog.
Whatever you do, the goal is to make kindness the norm for the week and beyond, because we all benefit when kindness and generosity become a way of life. You can share your own acts of kindness with us on social media using the hashtag #RandomActsofHumankind.
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