A netizen, Andrew Wong, shared how he was having dinner at a hawker centre when the cleaner, an old woman in her late 70s came to collect his food tray.
She then later told him that she left some money at a drink stall because she wanted to buy him a drink.
She later revealed that it was because she saw him eating spicy ban mian and was sweating profusely.
You can read his post in full below:
“Found love in a hopeless place 
We were having dinner. Fried oyster and chilli ban mian. When she came over to remove the serving tray, we told her we needed it to return the cutlery to the cleaning station.
She told me that won’t be necessary because she will clean the table after we are done. It will be even more troublesome for her to push the trolley to the tray return station and send the used cutlery to the cleaning station. She said she works fast, so these won’t be on the table for long.
She looks rather old, late 70s and perhaps 80s, short and frail! We felt quite sorry. We did however notice she works pretty fast for a lady her age!
A few moment later when she passed by our table, she stopped and through the mask she mumbled something like “buying a drink” in Hokkien. I thought she was asking if we could get her a drink. I am all ready for that but when I asked what she would like to drink.
She said: “No, No, I want to buy both of you a drink! I have left some money at the drink stall already. Do you want a cold drink?” We were dumbfounded and didn’t know what to reply.
Politely we told her that is not necessary and tried to explain we don’t drink beverage while eating (quite a lie actually- depending on what drink lah).
We chatted for a while and asked if she had dinner and if we can get her some food. “How about orh luak? This one we are eating is really good” She laughed and explained that what I am having is orh jian and it is different and she said she had eaten. She then left to carry on with her work.
We were all confused but at the same time pretty ashamed of what we were thinking. Something struck my mind. We were having a very spicy bowl of ban mian and I was sweating profusely. I ran to her and asked “Aunty, do you mind if I ask you something. Did you want to buy me a drink because you saw me perspiring, in agony?”
She broke into a hearty giggle and nodded her head. We looked at each other and had a good laugh, then bid farewell.
I promised I will come back to see her again and maybe we can have a drink together. She told me she works there every evening and if I do come by, say hello.
We were greatly humbled this evening but our heart was warmly touched by her big heartedness to a pair of strangers!”
Source: Andrew Wong via Kakis’ Club Facebook