Lee Bondurant is 51 years old and has cerebral palsy. That night, at the 42nd Street Oyster Bar in Raleigh, North Carolina, his mother was trying to do two things at once: feed him and feed herself. She couldn’t.
A waiter known as “Five” noticed. He said nothing about the difficulty or offered help awkwardly. He simply asked Lee if he had ever tried oysters and offered to serve him the first one quite naturally, as one serves any customer.
For Lee, who values his independence above all else, it was what he himself called “the ultimate display of kindness”. His mother posted the story on social media to give thanks and said that gesture restored his faith in humanity. Lee and Five ended up celebrating his birthday together, the friendship that was born from a question about oysters.
