Customers raise thousands of dollars for Waffle House employee fighting cancer

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - Waffle House customers are raising money for a beloved employee who hides her personal struggle with a smile.

Cynthia Morrison has worked at the Waffle House on Cedarcrest Road and Highway 92 for 37 years. Not only will she ask for your breakfast order – she’ll get your life story, too.

“Most of the time I know their order, their drink, their name,” said Morrison. “If you know their name, it makes them feel special.”

Morrison’s genuine interest in every customer who walks in is part of the reason one regular noticed her absence one morning.

Joey Godfrey and his family have dined with Morrison hundreds of times over the last five or six years.

“She’s always there every Saturday,” said Godfrey. “She’s always smiling, always asking how I’m doing, how are my kids doing - it’s never about her.”

When their paths crossed days later, Godfrey asked Morrison where she had been. He was shocked to learn why she called out.

“She leaned in and said ‘I have cancer. Bone cancer,’” said Godfrey.

Morrison says she was diagnosed with stage one Multiple Myeloma in March. She had just started chemotherapy pills at home and suffered a poor reaction – but never planned to share her diagnosis with customers.

“I didn’t mean for it to just come out,” she explained.

Her health scare comes months after losing her brother to cancer and her mother to Covid-19. But the dozens of people she greets daily would never know about her struggle.

The news hit Godfrey hard. He lost his stepdad to cancer last year and has a close friend currently fighting the disease.

He left a $120 tip for Morrison that day, but his generosity didn’t stop there. In less than a week, he set up a GoFundMe for Cynthia. More than $5,000 had been donated in a matter of days.

Cynthia faces eight more rounds of chemotherapy, procedures, and weeks she won’t be able to work. She said she appreciates the money, but nothing beats the kindness coming her way.

NOTE: CBS46 does not vet any GoFundMe pages or promises the money will be used for the stated reasons. Donate at your own risk.

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