Milwaukee area restaurant hostess helps teacher's aide who hadn't eaten for days

It began as a simple phone from a CBS 58 viewer to anchor Michele McCormack.

The teacher's aide had been at wits end and  an acquaintance at her neighborhood restaurant helped her.

This hero is the hostess. She and her fiancee own the Family Table restaurant in Brown Deer.

The teacher's aide so embarrassed by her dire financial situation that she asked us not to share her identity.

But she did  want to share her story.

She ran out of food. She didn't eat for three days. Payday is not until l next Thursday.

"I was light headed I was dizzy. I didn't know what to do."

She had been to the Family Table restaurant before as a customer. Just not over the summer when the money wasn't coming in.

She phoned the place out of desperation and the hostess Rena Strickland picked up.

"She says I know you know who I am," recalled Strickland. The two had spoken about her sister who had passed away from cancer.

Then the conversation got really serious.

"I told her I was so hungry," said the teacher's aide. "I said if she could wait until next Thursday I could pay her back."

Strickland told her to come on in. A cheeseburger, a quart of soup and some bread were waiting. Paying would never be necessary.

"My mother is a single parent," shared Strickland. "So we know about not having any food and I wasn't about to let anybody go hungry."

Rena's open, albeit a little bit baffled, by our interest. Our  need to tell this story.

For her, it's  second nature being nice.

A nice reminder for us all.