Coffee Stand Employees Stop to Pray With Grieving Customer

Now their good deed is going viral
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 23, 2016 5:03 PM CDT
Coffee Stand Employees Stop to Pray With Grieving Customer
This photo of three coffee stand employees praying with a customer whose husband had just died has gone viral on Facebook.   (Facebook)

A grieving woman who had just lost her husband found solace in an unexpected place: the young employees of a local drive-thru coffee stand. The Oregonian reports employees at Dutch Bros. Coffee in Vancouver, Washington, noticed one of their customers seemed upset while waiting in her car Saturday. It turns out her 37-year-old husband died the night before. When 19-year-old employee Pierce Dunn found out, he gave the woman a free coffee and asked if he could pray for her. The next thing you know, Dunn and two other employees were leaning out the drive-thru window, holding the woman's hand, and praying. "We just love people," Dunn tells KATU. "Anytime we see someone sad or mournful, it takes five minutes to make their week, make their life. It's a small price to pay."

Barbara Danner was waiting in line behind the impromptu prayer circle and snapped a photo, which she posted to Facebook. By Tuesday afternoon, the photo had gone viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of shares and likes. Evan Freeman, a 21-year-old Dutch Bros. employee who joined in the prayer despite not being religious, says the employees didn't want attention for their actions; they just wanted to make the woman feel the joy and love that is in the world. "She could have said she wanted an apple, and I would have gone and planted a tree and grown her an apple," he tells the Oregonian. The woman spent about 10 minutes talking and praying with the Dutch Bros. employees, but Dunn tells the Columbian waiting customers didn't seem to mind at all. (A Delta pilot made headlines for his big gesture on behalf of a grieving family.)

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