Anonymous couple pays for stranger’s meals at Rexburg Wendy’s, drivers pay-it-forward
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REXBURG — An anonymous couple helped spread holiday cheer earlier this week at a popular fast food location.
Brynlee Wilwand, 15, is an employee at the Wendy’s in Rexburg off Moody Road. On Tuesday, Wilwand was working the drive-thru window where customer’s pay. A couple drove up and asked how much the person’s order was behind them. Wilwand told the man driving that it was about $3 or $4. He asked about the car behind them, and she said it was around $20.
The couple paid for both orders — and then some.
“He handed me a stack of money and said we were cleaning out our car earlier and we had some extra money in our cash drawer in the car,” Wilwand recalls hearing. “It probably added up to $80 or $90. He said to use this to pay for as many orders behind me as you can.”
What followed after that exchange is something Wilwand will never forget.
“People would come through and I’d be like, ‘Oh, the order is already paid for,'” Wilwand explained. “They would either pay for the person behind them, and if they didn’t, I’d use (this couple’s) money to pay for them.”
Wilwand said the couple asked her to tell those she used the money on, “Merry Christmas.”
The unknown couple touched the hearts of many that day as Wilwand remembers customers saying “That’s so sweet” and “Can I pay for the person behind me?”
“There was this one lady, she started crying,” Wilwand mentioned. “She had a couple of her kids in the car and she was like, ‘That made my day. I was having a hard day, and I needed a pick me up.'”
Not only were these acts of kindness something Wilwand was grateful to witness, but how it ended left her in amazement.
“On the very last order, the total was like $20.24. I had exactly that amount left from the original man that came through,” Wilwand said.
She mentioned that around 20 to 25 cars made it through the drive-thru line with their meals either being paid for from the couple or others in line who decided to do something good for someone else.
“I thought it was amazing that pretty much everybody wanted to pay-it-forward and everyone wanted to be kind,” Wilwand said.