Bob's Diner Rallies Around Injured Waitress

Late in the morning of April 18, Jessie Hliwski had breakfast at , where she has worked as a waitress for the past 18 years, before heading off on foot to the dollar store to get goodies for the Easter baskets she distributes annually to friends and co-workers. She was expected to stop back at Bob's afterwards to pick up her grandson, who works in the diner's kitchen, and give him a ride home. Hliwski never made it back though.

Later that afternoon, Trisha Harder, a fellow waitress at Bob's, heard bustle outside the diner.

"There was a lot of noise and we could tell that something had happened, that there had been an accident," said Harder. "Then a customer came in and said 'It's Jessie,' and brought in her shoe. We went into shock."

At approximately 1 p.m., Hliwski was hit by a city bus on the corner of Ridge Avenue and Lyceum Avenue while attempting to cross the intersection. Though the mother of six, grandmother, and, as of recently, great-grandmother, survived the impact, she sustained a head injury and considerable damage to her legs and feet. She is presently undergoing treatment at the trauma unit of Temple Hospital.

While she faces a grueling rehabilitation and recovery period—and, in all likelihood, still more skin grafts and other procedures to repair her damaged feet—she is said to be in good spirits.

"Except she says she doesn't like the food," said Harder.

Back at Bob's though, she is sorely missed and patrons and employees alike have rallied around her in her absence. Get well cards and an inscription book have been circulating the Roxborough diner since the accident, and owner Jim Evans has started taking donations in a large plastic jar to help defray her medical costs.

"I pulled $120 out of it today," said Evans.

Everyone Hliwski knows, the staff says, has been eager to help out. And she knows everybody.

"She's really outgoing. She's always joking with everybody," said Harder, adding that Hliwski was known around Bob's for her "craftiness" as well as her humor and charm. Her most recent project was tissue boxes decorated with the faces of members of the Phillies.

"Oh boy do I miss her," added Mary Lou Scharff, who waitresses with Hliwski every weekend, joking that "Now nobody is here to yell at me."

The quarters inside Bob's are close and so are the relationships between the staff and their customers. Michelle Greenlee has worked at the diner for just two weeks, but already acutely feels Hliwski's absence.

"I miss her already," sighed Greenlee.

It's a shared sentiment.

"The customers we've told about the accident are just shocked and numb. Like we are," said Harder.

Though they try to stay optimistic, the staff admits that they're unsure of what to expect from the recovery.

"I'm just hoping she's able to walk again, let alone come back to work," said Evans. "Will the skin grafts work? She's seventy plus years old and—."

Scharff cut him off.

"There are miracles though."

She expects one.