This is the story of Brittany Mathis, and her boss, Michael De Beyer.
Brittany works at the Kaiserhof Restaurant & Wunderbar in Montgomery, Texas. Her older sister, and mother work there as well. Mr. De Beyer has been the owner of this authentic German restaurant for 17 years.
Brittany is 19 years old, and if you look at her picture, she looks healthy, but in her case, looks are deceiving, because she is a very sick young lady. It all started with a rash on her leg. She has no insurance, but she went to get it looked at anyway, and it turns out that the rash was actually blood clotting. An MRI and CAT Scans confirmed the worst kind of news. She has a ping pong sized tumor on her brain.
In a sad Irony, her father had the same kind of tumor, but it was not discovered until after it ruptured, which was fatal, back in 2000. I can only imagine how her mother is taking this whole thing.
So Brittany gets through the CAT scans, and the MRI's and now what? Medical bills are already piled up from those expensive tests, her family obviously can't afford any of it, and at this point she can't even afford to find out if it malignant or benign. Her treatment has simply stopped.
This is where her boss Michael De Beyer stepped in. He has decided to auction off his restaurant, with a minimum bid being set at 50% of it's actual worth, which he estimates to be around 2 million dollars. He has pledged to use anything over that 50% amount to pay her medical bills.
This is his family's restaurant. This restaurant represents 17 years of his life. It represents 17 years of daily toil, 17 years of building and nurturing what is by all accounts a thriving business.
By his own account, Mr. De Beyer has wanted to get out of the business, to be able to devote more time to his wife and children, and has listed his restaurant in the past, once turning down a 1.3 million dollar offer, probably because he felt that it wasn't reflective of the value and the work he had put into his business.
Well, he just put a value on his loyalty to this employee. The value? He decided 17 years of his life is the value for helping to save an employee from a life threatening condition. He is trading his restaurant for Brittany's health. There will be no turning down any offers. Once the minimum is met, Brittany gets the rest. Nobody knows how much this will be, but I pray that it will be more than enough for this young lady to get all of the best medical treatment needed for her to get through this.
Heck, most folks would think him a great guy if he hosted a few fundraisers at his restaurant, and maybe matched the donations with one of his own. Mr. De Beyer went way beyond that though, and it makes my heart glad to know that there are people out there like him.
In explaining his decision, Mr. De Beyer said, "It's not right. Here's a family, they really work hard, they have a lot of stuff against them in the past," he said, referring to Brittany's deceased father. "They didn't even ask anybody for help."
He went on to say, "I'm not able to just sit by and let it happen," he added. "I couldn't live with myself; I would never be happy just earning money from my restaurant knowing that she needs help."
In this day and age where everybody seems to battle over politics, religion, race, and every other imaginable thing, we sometimes lose touch with the good stories. Me included.
In this day where people like Lebron James, Mylie Cyrus, and Justin Bieber are hero worshiped, we lose touch with the true heroes.
Mr. Michael De Beyer, from somewhere in Texas is a man of incredible generosity and goodwill, and I consider him one of the truest of heroes...
More on this story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RNft6-WVEs
