It takes two seconds to look up from your phone. Two seconds to make eye contact, say good morning, and treat the person taking your order with respect. Yolanda Cuba forgot that one morning. A waitress, who had come to work with a prayer on her lips, reminded her…
Johannesburg, South Africa (01 April 2026) – Yolanda Cuba was sitting in a Morningside cafe, waiting for her daughter to finish her trials. As many of us would when alone in a restaurant, she had her phone out. Focused on work when a waitress came to take her order.
Without glancing up, she placed it – a cappuccino, scrambled eggs, side bacon – and waited for the sound of retreating footsteps. They didn’t come. Instead, the waitress stayed where she was until the silence became impossible to ignore.
When Yolanda finally looked up, the woman simply smiled and said, “Good morning.”
It was such an ordinary thing to say. And yet it landed like a stone dropped into still water…
“That moment hit me instantly.” shared Yolanda, recounting the incredible encounter that moved her that day and that stuck with her ever since.
Two words. That’s all it took for the weight of personal history to come rushing back.
“I had been rude. I hadn’t acknowledged her. Not as a person. Not even with basic respect. And the part that stayed with me even more — I knew better. I was once a waitress.”
Yolanda knows what it feels like to stand at a table and be invisible. To place a plate in front of someone whose eyes never rise from their phone. To say ‘enjoy your meal’ into the void. She carried the weight of that experience.
Because of that history, she had long made it a point to do things differently. To look people in the eye, to ask their names, to address them by those names. To treat every person she encountered in a service role as exactly what they are. A human being first, and a waiter second. On this particular morning, distracted and hurried, she had let that slip.
“I know what it feels like to be unseen. To serve, and not be acknowledged. To be spoken to, but not really seen.”
That’s the truth about the service industry that so many of us forget when we’re rushing, stressed, or distracted. Every person behind a counter, carrying a tray, or refilling your glass is a full human being with a life as complex and demanding as our own.
In South Africa, waitstaff and service workers often carry enormous financial pressure. They work long shifts, rely heavily on tips, and manage the emotional labour of being constantly pleasant to strangers who don’t always extend that courtesy back.
“When she walked away, I sat there thinking about it. No excuses. Just awareness.”
She just let it be what it was, a small failure from someone who genuinely knew better, and decided to make it right. When the waitress returned, Yolanda apologised sincerely. And when the bill arrived, she paid far more than was owed.
A R1000 tip left for the reminder she hadn’t known she needed. And a note, too.
“Thank you for teaching me a lesson in respect this morning.”
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As Yolanda was leaving, she caught a glimpse of the waitress showing the receipt to her manager and she stopped to tell him that this woman had been an angel sent to her that day.
What happened next she did not expect at all. The waitress ran after her as she was on her way out.
“She said, ‘When I came to work this morning, I prayed for money to pay my rent.’ The amount she needed was R1 000.” Yolanda shares. “It was her answered prayer. This was not coincidence, it was confirmation. This was not a tip, it was the universe balancing the ledger.”
Yolanda has kept that receipt ever since, not as a memento of generosity, but as a reminder of something much harder to hold onto. That our attention, our presence, and our basic courtesy are never as small as they feel in the moment we give them.
“Not because of the money, but because of what it represents. A reminder that respect is not optional. It is foundational. A reminder that small moments can carry profound lessons – from anyone and anywhere. And a reminder that sometimes, we are part of someone else’s answered prayer without even realising it.”
Most of us have been Yolanda in that moment.
Phone in hand and order placed at someone’s feet without so much as a glance, a ‘how are you’ or a ‘nice to meet you’.
We’re not bad people when we do it; we’re just not fully present. But presence is exactly what respect requires, and the service industry is one of the places we most consistently forget that.
The person bringing your coffee started their shift early, probably travelled a long way to get there, and is almost certainly carrying worries you know nothing about. A good morning costs nothing and means more than we realise.
“Respect is not just about intention. It’s about presence. It’s in the way we see people, acknowledge them, and call them by name. That day changed me.” says Yolanda.
We rarely know when we are the answer to someone else’s prayer. We can’t see the rent that’s overdue, the worry that followed someone to work, the hope they carried through the door that morning. But we can look up, say good morning, and treat the person in front of us like they matter…because they do.
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