Jessica Hilyard wasn’t planning to go to Chick-fil-A that Wednesday. The Phoenix stay-at-home mom (who goes by @__jess_hilyard on TikTok) had been home all day with her two-year-old and six-month-old, hitting the kind of wall that doesn’t have a name but every new parent recognizes immediately. She remembered a birthday coupon on her phone, about to expire, and decided that was reason enough to load the kids in the car and go somewhere, anywhere.
“It was an extremely random place for us to go,” she told People magazine. “We usually don’t eat out for lunch, but that’s where we ended up.” She pulled through the drive-thru at the Chick-fil-A in Norterra, placed her order, and waited.
When the employee brought her food to the window, he had something else in his hand too. A small card, the size of a postcard, with “Just wanted to say…” printed at the top. In the space below, in his own handwriting, he had written: “You are doing such a good job with those kids!” It was signed by an employee named Malachi.
Hilyard didn’t read it until she’d pulled away. Then she sat in her car and cried, and filmed herself doing it.
“A Chick-fil-A employee randomly handed this to me not knowing I’ve been having a hard time,” the text on her video read. She held up the card to the camera. “You’re an angel,” she said. In the caption, she tagged Chick-fil-A and added: “I hope I can find him to thank him for this. This is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me.”
She found him. Or rather, he found her.
A TikTok account under the username @MJL left a comment on her video: “Hey, that was me! I’m Malachi who wrote the message! So glad I could make a difference in your life.” Hilyard’s response was all-caps: “MALACHI, you’re so sweet, thank you!! This meant the whole world to me.” He signed off the way Chick-fil-A employees are trained to: “It was truly my pleasure.”
The card Malachi used is part of a real program. Chick-fil-A distributes what it calls Sunshine Cards to employees during designated “Sunshine Days,” encouraging them to hand-write notes to customers who seem like they could use one. The gesture isn’t spontaneous exactly, but the moment Malachi chose to use it was entirely his own call.
Then his mom showed up. @mrsdcfoster73 commented: “Malachi is my son. I know that handwriting anywhere! He also shared this post with me. Your tears make me tear up. Often, as the parent of two amazing sons, there are times when I’m unsure if I did my best.” Hilyard wrote back: “You raised a wonderful man, mama. He truly made an impact in my life.”
His girlfriend left a comment too. A detail from the comments that people kept sharing: @bri_gets_downcooking pointed out that the name Malachi means “messenger” in Hebrew.
Nobody planned any of this. A coupon about to expire, a bad Wednesday, a worker who noticed a mom with two little kids and decided to write something down. Sometimes the thing that gets you through a hard day is just someone saying out loud what you needed to hear.
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
