'I don't know how I got so lucky': Strangers gift Yellowknife server $1,100 in cash

The season of giving is in the air — and one Yellowknife server has benefited from the good cheer.

Brenegan McNulty, a single mother and server at Yellowknife's Nova Hotel restaurant, received quite the surprise during her shift Sunday evening.

Her serving shift had a bit of a hectic start, McNulty recalled, as the restaurant was short staffed. So when a group of 10 women walked in, she said it was overwhelming, but she still decided to take the table. 

McNulty said she thought the women were out to celebrate a birthday, because they were all passing around a card and signing it.

The group of women then asked her to take a photo of all of them.

"After I took their picture, they were like 'oh wait, here,' and they hand me the card," she said. 

McNulty said when she looked inside, she was in shock.

"I knew it was going to be something, but I had no idea it was going to be $1,100 in cash."

McNulty said she had no idea who any of the women were. They told her they had chosen a random restaurant and a random server.

"They wanted to do something nice for someone who was working hard during the holiday season," she said.

"That's something you hear about happening on The Ellen Show, you know, not here in Yellowknife."

McNulty said she works two jobs to support her one-year-old son, Kash. In addition to her part-time serving job, she's also a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness.

McNulty said "having [the] additional income means so much."

"[It] could go toward a new stroller for him, groceries, [or] saving for rent for my own place, hopefully in the New Year," she said.

She added that it isn't easy working seven days a week away from her son but "going to work and having something great like this happen makes it all worth it."

"I felt like I won some sort of lottery. I don't know how I got so lucky."