Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas City grocery store employee received a $15,000 check after making the extra effort to help a customer.

Eva Betts, who works at Cosentinos Market in the Brookside district, got the check and a letter from Carl Hanzeilious, a customer in his 90s who recently died.

Betts told KCTV that she grew close to Hanzeilious over the years. And as he became older and less independent, she would help him shop for groceries and even visited him when he was sick at St. Luke’s Hospital to “cheer him up a little bit.”

Hanzeilious lived a block from the store. Betts said the man had no family in Kansas City as far as she knew, so she wanted him to know someone was thinking about him.

Other Cosentinos employees said Betts is always greeting customers with a smile and then helping others in her spare time. She’s worked at the store for more than a decade.

“It couldn’t have happened to a better person,” store manager Mark Lenz said. “When she’s done working 40 to 50 hours here, she goes to the hospital and donates her time to children and the elderly.”

Betts said the money from Hanzeilious will help her, especially after a hit-and-run crash strapped her bank account this year.

“I had quite a substantial loss with that, and lots of self-pity,” Betts said. “But this is God letting me know he’s still here. It’s truly a blessing, truly a blessing!”