Waitress gets big tip to help pay for hearing aids Keri Marie Carlson said one customer’s generosity left her crying and grateful.

 -- For waitress Keri Marie Carlson, service that leaves customers smiling is part of the job at GW Carson’s Restaurant in Branford, Connecticut, but the tables were turned last week when a customer left her feeling grateful and in tears.

She was walking the customer to his table when he noticed that Carlson had trouble hearing him.

Carlson explained that one of her two hearing aids was broken and in need of repair.

“I didn’t say I needed the money or anything,” Carlson said to ABC station WTNH.

The customer, who wished to remain anonymous, surprised Carlson by handing her $500.

“I cried for a minute in his arms,” the appreciative waitress said.

The kind gesture has had a pay-it-forward effect.

The owner of GW Carson’s, Jim Kirtopoulos, has decided to donate a portion of the proceeds from the restaurant’s T-shirt sales to the American Society for Deaf Children.