2020 has been a bad year for a lot of people. With the worldwide crisis throwing everything off the rails, just getting from one day to another has been a real struggle. Luckily for waitress Lisa Mollett, the generosity of her customers has given her a reason to smile amidst all the sadness.

Out Of Work

Like plenty of people, Lisa was forced out of work when the crisis struck. Although she was still employed, she couldn’t do her job because her restaurant was closed. The Empire Diner in New Jersey shut its doors in March, and it was several months until they opened again. Being unable to work for so long put a real strain on Lisa, especially as a single mother with two kids. However, through all the pressure, she managed to keep herself and her family afloat.

One Disaster After Another

When the Empire Diner reopened, Lisa was thrilled to start earning a regular paycheck again. However, it wasn’t long before disaster struck for a second time when her car broke down. Unable to afford to fix it, she resorted to using Uber to get to and from her job. This wasn’t exactly the cheapest alternative, but with everything going on, she didn’t have many other choices. That was when two of her regular customers did something to turn her luck around.

An Extraordinary Tip

We’ve heard of tipping serving staff generously, but this went above and beyond. Lisa’s customers gifted her a Nissan Ultima, so she didn’t have to pay for any more Uber rides to work. According to the waitress, the couple visits the Empire Diner all the time and have a family much like hers. When they learned of her struggles, they wanted to do something to make her smile. Evidently, they were successful.

This is one of the toughest years we’ve ever experienced, but at least people haven’t lost their generous and loving spirit.

With all of its snow and undomesticated land, you never know what could be found deep within Russia.

At its Kostenki 11 site, a strange structure made of mammoth fossils was recently found. Dated back to around 25.000 years, it’s the oldest structure of its kind discovered so far. What its significance and historical use were is yet to be discovered.

Structures Dating Back to the Ice Age

Man-made formations similar to the one discovered at the Kostenki 11 site were seen before in several spots across Eastern Europe. They’re commonly circular and made of numerous mammoth fossils. The Kostenki 11 site is located in Russia, by the Don River, near the city Voronezh. The structure found here is the largest and oldest one of its kind discovered so far. Its age was determined through radiocarbon dating and all findings regarding this site were published in Antiquity. There are usually several large pits surrounding the structures. Similar sites were found in Russia in the 1950s, the 1960s, and 2013.

What Were These Structures Made of Fossils For

Researchers have several ideas regarding what the significance of these structures was during the last Ice Age. However, no theory has been proven. Alexander Pryor, one of the leading authors of the new study, offers a few possibilities about the significance of these structures. He says they may have been dwellings, although he claims it isn’t the most likely theory. Humans of that era were nomadic and didn’t typically make long-term dwellings. Additionally, if some of the bones used in the construction still had meat and cartilage, they would have attracted predators.

Another idea is that the site was used for storing food. The flotation technique used by the researchers to sift through the remains on this site discovered some charcoal, including charred plant remains, burnt bones, and bits of stone tools. Another theory is that the site had some sort of spiritual significance for the Pleistocene humans.

This discovery shows that the hunter-gatherers of the last Ice Age had the skills to plan and build. Hopefully, further research will give more conclusive evidence as to what role these structures played.