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Lincoln, Nebraska, waitress receives huge tip, goes back to school

A Lincoln, Nebraska, waitress is going back to school — thanks to a kind customer's very generous tip.

Two men arrived at the Lincoln Cracker Barrel for lunch on Thursday and asked the hostess if they could be served by the establishment's grumpiest waitress. She told them that no one at the restaurant was grumpy, so she gave them its happiest server instead: 18-year-old Abigail Sailors.

As Sailors served the men their lunch specials, they started asking her questions, starting with the obvious one: "Why are you so happy?"

Sailors shared her life story:

When she was young, her mother suffered a traumatic brain injury. Her father was unfit to care for Sailors and her four siblings, so she spent much of her childhood in foster homes. About nine years ago, John and Susi Sailors took all five kids in. Abigail took their name.

"It's a great home, great people, amazing," Sailors told her customers. "I don't know how I would have turned out if I didn't have them. They shaped the person I am today."

The upbeat server said that she was trying to put herself through school — she's studying youth ministry and psychology at Trinity Bible College in North Dakota — but due to lack of funds had to take off the spring semester. Sailors, a basketball player, hoped to save enough wages and tips to return to school in the fall.

"I'm just thankful," she told the Lincoln Journal Star. "Everything we went through, my attitude is: God blessed me with a lot of things. I’m doing good. That’s all that matters to me."

One of the men told Sailors that he was an alumni of Trinity. He then wrote her three cheques: $5,000 to cover her college tuition, $1,000 for personal use and a $100 tip to split with another server.

"I said, 'Are you serious,' and my eyes just filled with tears. It's always been my dream college: to go there and play basketball, and go to a Christian school where I can seek God. For that to actually come true and [for me to] not have to worry about those finance problems," Sailors told WTXF.

"I couldn't believe it," Sailors said. "I tried to thank them and they said, 'Thank God.'"

Sailors told the Lincoln Journal Star that she didn't feel right sharing the kind strangers' names with the press.

Sailors is heading back to school — and to Trinity's basketball team — next week, WTXF reported.

"It forever changed my heart and my life. And I definitely see life a lot different now. You can always give more," Abigail said.