Eduviges Villatoro ordered a large table at a restaurant to celebrate his 61st birthday with family and friends. He came early to help set up and did a nice job decorating the table. He placed a beautiful birthday cake in the middle and waited… and waited and waited….
A half hour passed, 1 hour, 2 hours and people in the restaurant noticed something was amiss. Eduviges tried making contact with the people he invited but it was one big no-show from everyone he called. Eduviges understood he would be celebrating alone so he got up and cleared his throat and made a request of the people in the restaurant.
“Today is my 61st birthday. I planned on celebrating this evening and I bought a cake because I was supposed to meet my family and friends. I had hoped my children, grandchildren and my wife would come but you can see no one did. So I ask of all of you if any of you can come and join me to celebrate my birthday and sing happy birthday with me I will be forever indebted to you.”
One by one the guests got up and joined him at his table they hugged him and congratulated and then they all sang ‘happy birthday’ to Eduviges who was now really cheered up. He now got up and spoke:
“I thank you all for your warmth and humaneness that you displayed here today but I must ask your forgiveness. I must admit that what took place here today was really just a social experiment to see how total strangers would react when faced with such a situation. I must say you all reacted in the best way possible.”
