Sarah Saba recently took her elderly mother out for a meal at Denny’s restaurant in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. It was supposed to be a treat to her mother who had suffered from a life-changing health problem. However, it turned into an embarrassing scene in the restaurant.
As the Sabas try to have a decent meal, the elderly woman choked on her food. Saba’s mom had a battery of surgeries on her esophagus which made it difficult for her to swallow and sometimes choke on her food. While the incident at the restaurant did not endanger her life, it did cause a humiliating scene.
The Sabas could have the let the incident pass but what happened next is far more degrading to ignore. The restaurant manager left a rude note for Sarah’s mother.
According to The Daily Meal, Bob Quigley, Denny’s manager at Brooklyn Park, left a note on the bottom of the elderly woman’s receipt. He wrote, “Add $15 for Life Alert button,” after the woman choked on her meal.
Saba shared a picture of the receipt on her Facebook account and her outrage over the restaurant’s staff poor treatment of a customer. She wrote in her post, “As you all know my mom has had a few surgeries recently on her esophagus. She has trouble eating, swallowing and even keeping things down. She chokes when she eats and eating any meal is a process for her. To have a little normalcy in her day, she went to Denny’s in Brooklyn Park, to try to eat on Monday afternoon. This is what the Manager, yes the Manager wrote on her bill!” See photo below.
The Daily Meal tried to reach Quigley for a statement about the incident and the picture that Saba shared on Facebook. Quigley, however, declined to give a comment.
Moreover, Saba spoke with the owner of Denny’s franchise at Brooklyn Park. He told her that Quigley would be punished for his action. The manager would receive a “write-up” in his file and he would go through a training again. The owner explained that he could not fire Quigley over his rude action because of the manager’s tenure of employment. The owner also offered the Sabas a reimbursement of their previous meal and one free meal at the restaurant in the future. Saba told The Daily Meal that Quigley did eventually call her to apologize for his action.
Meanwhile, Saba’s sister, Caroline Speikers, said she also received a call from the owner of Denny’s at Brooklyn Park. He told her that Quigley’s “Life Alert button” comment on the receipt was a joke and in reference to the 60-year-old waitress who was serving Saba and her mother at the time. The owner said the waitress “could get hurt by running around so much.”
“Either he’s mocking someone who is ill and disabled, or he’s totally comfortable discriminating against someone’s age,” Speikers said. “He has a sick and twisted sense of humor, and should not be allowed around customers.”
source: AWM