Honoring a brother's last wish: $500 tips on a cross-country mission

[7962]

Source: Fox

While a lot of us woke up Thursday morning to head back to work, or to the malls for Christmas returns, Seth Collins was hitting the road on what could be the final leg of an 18-month feel-good mission of brotherly love.

Waiters and waitresses, rejoice. It's what Seth's kid brother, Aaron, wanted.

In fact, it was his last wish.

"Leave an awesome tip (and I don't mean 25%, I mean $500 on an f***ing pizza) for a waiter or waitress," Aaron wrote in his will. He was only 30 when he died on July 7, 2012.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/27/honoring-brother-last-wish-500-tips-on-cross-country-mission/?intcmp=trending

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Love reading how so many from all over the world helped make this happen. Nice to read good news for a change.

[gussmith]

1. Aaron Collins

I don't mean to be too inquisitive... but what happened to Aaron at such a young age?

[TBF]

2. Anyone can do that search and get the answer -

the fact that you posed that question in such a way tells me all I need to know.

[TexasProgresive]

5. I don't know what you know about gussmith.

It was not easy for me to find an answer. It took 5 different searches rephrasing to get one hit that had anything on the cause of death. All but one of the hits was about the quest to carry out Aaron's request.

I don't alert (at least not yet) but your post was ad hominem. If I was selected on a jury for that post I would vote-Hide it.

[gussmith]

6. Sheesh

Why should there be a need to research a basic fact in a story? Aaron is dead because....? Maybe if you all had asked what WMD we would have more living and fewer wounded vets.

[TexasProgresive]

7. Perhaps you meant this reply for TBF?

[Iggo]

8. Us all?

[TBF]

10. Your post was an attempt to focus on his suicide

rather than the point of the story - that the brother decided to do a good thing and give tips to waiters/waitresses as a remembrance to his brother. Giving, sharing - that's a great thing to do. Why re-focus the story on the suicide? My guess, just an opinion, is that some don't wish to talk about good deeds and the related topic of paying wait staff fairly.

That's what this is about.

[TexasProgresive]

12. Why are you sure of that?

It wasn't easy for me to find out the cause of death. So how do you know the other poster knew?

[TBF]

13. Again, you are trying to take the focus off the actual OP

so I will keep talking about it. The OP in which a kind-hearted soul raised money and went on a mission to honor his brother by ordering food in cafes/restaurants and leaving a $500 tip at each. That is an amazing memorial. Not only has it likely helped him work through his grief but I'm sure it was a welcome gift to the many workers who have received the tips. Waiters and waitresses make about $3/hour if I'm not mistaken and are expected to get up to minimum wage with the assistance of tips rather than being paid a living wage to begin with.

[7962]

17. Yes! I knew, but didnt mention it because I didnt think it had anything to do with the story

The story about what his brother is doing and the joy he was spreading was the story. The linked story didnt mention cause of death so I didnt feel any need to bring it into the story.

[TBF]

11. And I view your response as a personal attack.

This is a story about a brother who tried to do a good thing by honoring his dead brother. He looked at his brother's selflessness, raised money, and went around the country doing a good deed - giving large tips to waiters/waitresses. How his brother died is irrelevant to the point of the story, yet two of you insist that the story must be how his brother died. Why is that? Why do you wish to cover up the good deed and instead talk about suicide? What is the point in that? Is that point that you wish to NOT talk about paying waiters/waitresses decent salaries?

I'm having a hard time figuring out why democrats would wish to obscure a good story and instead turn it into tarnishing the poor guy who died. Why would someone do that?

[Demit]

14. You are overreaching, in assuming what people's motives are.

Wondering how someone died is natural curiosity, not obscuring a story or tarnishing someone.

[TBF]

16. Logical jump -

And it's very interesting to me that a handful of you are more interested in cause of death than the actual good story in the OP. I wonder why? Just "natural" to focus on something not even discussed in the OP? Or an obvious attempt to veer folks away from discussing abysmal wages in this country. I wonder ....

[Demit]

18. Yes, it's a shadowy conspiracy. You caught us.

I like the new bit of paranoia about how we're steering discussion away from abysmal wages. You are too shrewd for us. We shall have to rethink our methods.

[TBF]

21. I'm not into conspiracy -

Capitalism is bad enough on it's own without seeking out the crazy.

Why are owners allowed those exemptions from wage laws? We pay for a decent meal than are expected to pay an additional 20%. I would rather pay a reasonable fee for the meal and then tip only if the service is truly worth it ( which assumes wait staff would be properly compensated and any tips would be solely merit based). Doesn't that make more sense if we truly wish to reward exemplary individuals?

[TexasProgresive]

3. Police are thinking suicide.

The family doesn't want to believe Aaron killed himself.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/14/us/kentucky-last-wish/index.html

[Iggo]

9. Heart failure.

You're welcome.

[catrose]

15. Coming from a family full of suicides

I'd say offhand that Aaron's family wants to focus on his life, not his death, and to somehow extend his thoughts and wishes, since they've been denied the 50 or more years they might have expected with him.

The first article I ever read about Aaron's Last Wish mentioned the suicide possibility, but since then I've read a lot of pearl-clutching and finger-pointing articles moaning about how deceitful the family is.

I can understand why they didn't mention cause of death in the video, especially if there were doubts or even denial, but it might have been better to mention it in passing, even if accompanied by "some say," just so the first thing people say wouldn't be, "How did he die?"

Aaron and his family's story inspired me to put $100 in the local coffee shop's tip jar. I hope it do something similar for you.

[7962]

19. You know, thats a great idea. Even after I posted I didnt think of doing it myself. Thanks,

for pointing out what should have been obvious to me!! I wonder where I'll eat next......

[catrose]

20. I know Aaron's family would be glad to see the custom spread EOM

[heaven05]

4. nice people

just wish we all had love in our heart.