A waitress at a Waffle House in Tennessee was surprised when a customer left her a $600 tip. Lauren Ball, a single mother preparing to go on vacation with her father, had recently paid for her son’s second birthday party and was in a tight financial spot. She had no idea that a customer would leave her with such a generous tip.

Ball said she had a pleasant conversation with two of the men she was serving, and one of them told her that his friend would leave her a huge tip. She didn’t believe it until she found the $600 bill on the table. She was so shocked that it made her sick to her stomach but in a good way.

The Kingsport Times-News reported that once the word got out about the tip, other employees wanted to see if it was real. The cook went outside and asked the man who left a tip if he was serious about it, and he said he was.

Ball ran outside as the men were leaving and hugged the man who left the tip and thanked him in tears. She had never met him before that night. Ball asked him why he would do something like that for a stranger, and he replied, “I just like to do things for nice people.”

Ball said she will never forget the man’s kind gesture and hopes to be able to pay it forward one day. Many readers commented on the story, saying that Ball deserved the tip and that the man who left it was very kind. One reader wrote, “This woman deserved it. What a nice man. This single mom is working to support her kids. People should learn from her.”