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Mom Buys Coffee For Women Who Insulted Her, Killing Them With Kindness

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 02:50 PST, Sep 25, 2015

A Michigan mom said she bought coffee for two women who insulted her while she was standing in line at Tim Hortons in Fort Gratiot, Michigan.

Think about this for a moment and let it sink in. You are standing in line to get a coffee with your young daughter when two middle-aged women start making snide comments about your looks, mocking your roots that haven’t been touched up, and referring to you as a whale. What would you do? Would you turn around and make a scene, calling them out for their harsh comments, or would you kill them with kindness?

For Dianne Hoffmeyer, the words hurt. They hurt so bad that it brought her to tears, but she wanted to set a good example for her 22-month-old daughter Liliana. Rather than stooping to their level, she instead told the cashier that she wanted to purchase their coffees for them. Crazy right?

Dianne, who says she is normally not quiet and tends to have a “big mouth,” had been up all night with her teething daughter. Dianne took Liliana to the gas station to get her some doughnut holes in hopes of easing her pain, and decided to get herself a coffee to help her after her sleepless night in preparation for Liliana’s early morning doctor’s appointment.

While waiting to checkout, she started listening to the women behind her, realizing quickly that they were talking about her.

“Oh look at her hair! I’s nasty looking, and the roots are coming through,” one woman said, while the other chimed in saying, “Oh she’s a whale, oh the whale needs to eat. Oh, even the whale needs to have liquids. Maybe she should go back into the water.”

The remarks would be hard for anyone to hear, but it was especially tough for Hoffmeyer, who had recently lost 177 pounds after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure during her pregnancy.

“I instantly started to cry, because it hurts. I don’t know the women. I don’t know why they would choose to say something like that,” Dianne told ABC affiliate WXYZ.“I told my cashier ‘I’ll pay for their coffee’ and she was like, ‘What!?'”

It would have been easily justifiable for Dianne to retaliate against the women insulting her. However, she wanted to make sure to show her daughter how you should behave so she would no what to do if she ever encountered a similar situation.

“My 2-year-old daughter is a mini-me and she mimics everything I do,” Hoffmeyer said. “I wanted to do the right thing so when she’s old enough she’ll know the right thing to do.”

Diane said she payed for the women’s coffee and then turned around and left. She got into her car, where she burst into tears. Later that day, Diane made a Facebook post about her encounter with bullying, addressing it to “the 2 mean bitter ladies standing in line at Tim Hortons.” Since posting about the incident, Diane’s post has reached nearly 200,000 likes and she has also received nearly 100,000 friend requests and messages.

“Just when you think there’s no one nice in the world, they’re all on my Facebook page,” Hoffmeyer said, according to 11Live.

The manager at the Tim Horton store also recognized Diane’s good deed and presented her with several gifts the next day.

“The next day, we gave her a gift card and a Tim Hortons travel mug, and she was very pleased,” Brittany Sanders said. “I felt she did the right thing by killing it with kindness and paying it forward. She handled it very well.”

So, what would Diane do if she was to encounter the women again someday?

“I’d like to buy them another cup of coffee, and talk to them. And explain to them how it made me feel.”

What do you think about the mom buying coffee for the women who insulted her? What would you have done? Leave your comments below.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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