FORT GRATIOT, Mich. (WRIC/WXYZ) — Dianne Hoffmeyer had her 22-month-old child with her at a Michigan Tim Horton’s when she went in to order donut holes for the teething child. And, maybe, a coffee for her sleep-deprived self.
Hoffmeyer told 8News affiliate WXYZ that two middle-aged women standing behind her in the line fired off hushed insults her way unprovoked.
“‘Oh look at her hair, its nasty looking and the roots are coming through,'” she recalled the women saying.
“‘Oh, she’s a whale, oh the whale needs to eat’,” they continued.
Hoffmeyer said the insults stung. She recently lost 177 pounds.
The women, complete strangers, weren’t aware of her previous weight.
“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.”
But what she did next is the surprising part of this story.
“I told the cashier, I’ll pay for their coffee.”
She then turned around, walked out and went to her car, where she cried.
Hoffmeyer says she wanted to set a better example for her children by paying it forward rather than going with the impulse of lashing out at the pair.
She posted her encounter on Facebook, which has since gone viral.
Should she run into the women again, or should they read this, Hoffmeyer says, “I’d like to buy them another cup of coffee, and talk to them. And explain to them how it made me feel.”
