(CBS NEWS) -- For the past 11 years, Joe Thomas has walked into work at IHOP in Springfield, Illinois, with a spring in his step and a smile on his face.
He knows all of his “regulars” by name, and since the 43-year-old waiter doesn’t have any children of his own, he treats any little ones that come into the restaurant like relatives. It’s something customers have come to expect.
“I love the people,” Thomas told CBS News. “I just love my life, and I love the way I am.”
Now the internet is falling in love with Thomas, too.
A photo of the waiter went viral over the weekend after he was spotted feeding a woman with Huntington disease, a genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. Her husband sat across the table, eating his usual — two eggs over easy, a side of sausage and a buttered pancake with a single egg on top.
