What Red Lobster Did For One Couple’s Anniversary Will Move You To Tears

Red Lobster may be facing an uncertain future since being sold by Darden in May, but when you hear what they did for a loyal couple on their anniversary, you’ll want to go out and order 20 Ultimate Seafood Platters — and you’ll probably drop some tears in the process.

A Redditor using the ID of Coppin-it-washin-it posted the receipt from her mom and dad’s anniversary meal. After a flurry of upvotes, it found its way to the site’s front page on Wednesday night.

According to the user, her mom and dad went to Red Lobster every year for their anniversary meal — 31 years in all. Then, the user’s dad died of cancer in March.

To help her grieving mom, the user’s sister took her out to the seafood restaurant to keep the tradition going. When it came time to settle the bill, the sister and mom opened the portfolio and received a note instead.

“We are sorry to hear about your husband’s passing, but we appreciate your loyalty in spending 31 years of your anniversary with us,” the note began.

Here’s the rest:

Comments have broken 1,000 as of this post — all were mostly supportive, though the question did come up as to whether it could be a marketing ploy:

“If this is a marketing trick to get Red Lobster on the front page, it’s genius,” said one commenter. “If it’s real, this is the way all businesses should be run.”

And some responses:

“… we once met a friend for dinner one time, he was about to be shipped off across seas. The lady asked why he had the uniform on and everything and he told her. It was late and we where one of the few tables left, the lady came back and said the bill was on the house.”

“We had a fellow come into our Red Lobster a couple of months ago. He said that it was special because he and his wife ate there before she started her round of chemo a year ago. Unfortunately, she didn’t beat cancer, but he went anyway to keep her memory alive…. We paid for his meal and gave him a $25 gift card to show our appreciation of him spending his time with us, even though his wife couldn’t join.”

“I worked as a server at a Red Lobster and had a super sweet older couple that were regulars of mine. One trip they told me that I wouldn’t be seeing them for awhile as the husband was having major surgery and she didn’t drive. I got their address before they left that evening, and spoke to management about their situation a couple days later. My management sent them a gift certificate for two meals of their choice to be spent on their next trip, or for takeout if they wanted while he was laid up. Don’t forget, it’s people who run the giant corporations. TL:DR- It’s likely legit.”

Our take: oh, it could be a clever Internet marketing thing, but in our own experiences with Red Lobster and other restaurants, it’s true what the last commenter said — “… it’s people who run the giant corporations.” And we’d like to think there are enough good ones left where this is the real deal.

If it is, good on you, Red Lobster.

[Featured Image via Flickr Creative Commons]