A cook at a frat house was like a mother to the members. Years later, they paid off her mortgage.

Jessie Hamilton worked as a cook at a fraternity house at Louisiana State University for 14 years.

While she was in constant motion preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the members of Phi Gamma Delta, commonly called Fiji, she would lend an ear when the young men needed her advice or care.

“She was like a mother to us,” said Andrew Fusaiotti, 52, a Fiji fraternity brother who attended LSU in the late 1980s. “She was always looking out for us.”

More than 30 years later, he and his fraternity brothers returned the favor.

On April 3, just before her 74th birthday, a dozen Fiji members and their families surprised Hamilton with an outdoor celebration at her home in Baton Rouge and presented her with a gift of $51,765.

Nearly 100 Fiji brothers contributed the money, which covered the outstanding balance of Hamilton’s mortgage — and then some — so she could finally retire. Hamilton was speechless.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

After working at least two jobs since she was 14, she said, she’s long been ready for retirement.

“I was a sharecropper’s daughter, so we didn’t have much,” said Hamilton. “At one time, I was working four jobs.” As a single mother of three, “there were times when I didn’t have enough money to put food on the table.”

Hamilton started working at the fraternity house in 1982, waking at 4 a.m. each day to catch the 5 a.m. bus to campus, where she fed as many as 100 fraternity brothers at a time. She mostly made comfort food: fried chicken, red beans and smoked sausage, carrot cake and peach cobbler. But what she enjoyed more than feeding the brothers was supporting them.

From relationship challenges to exam stress, “I was always there to talk things through with them,” she said. “They’d come in the kitchen and sit on the counter and tell me their problems.”

Johnny Joubert, 51, a Fiji member who graduated from LSU in 1993, was a regular.

“From Day One, she had this aura about her that drew everybody to her,” he said. “She always took care of us.”

After Hamilton left the fraternity house in 1996, she worked as a cleaner at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport and a cook at a country club. She’d been juggling both jobs ever since.

“I had to do what I had to do,” said Hamilton, who still had years to go in paying off the home she bought in 2006.

Over the years, Hamilton had stayed in touch with several of the fraternity brothers, including Joubert, a lawyer in Baton Rouge, and Fusaiotti, who owns a car dealership in Mobile, Ala.

At the start of the pandemic, Fusaiotti called Hamilton to check in on her. “That’s when she told me she was still working two jobs,” he said. “I asked her why, and she said she couldn’t afford to retire.”

He became determined to help her.

First, he contacted Hamilton’s children to find out exactly how much money was needed to pay off her mortgage. The sum: $45,000. He and Joubert then contacted fraternity brothers across the country to request donations of any amount to put toward a fund-raiser to pay it off. In all, 91 brothers donated an average of $560 to the fund. Finally, just ahead of Hamilton’s 74th birthday, they surprised her with a celebration they called “Jessie Hamilton Day.”

On that sunny Saturday afternoon, a small group of Fiji members and their families stood in the driveway of Hamilton’s home, ready for the surprise. Local news was there to capture the moment.

Hamilton’s three children led her outside as the crowd sang “Happy Birthday.” Tears streamed down her face.

“I hadn’t seen many of them in 30 years,” Hamilton said.

She sat down as Fusaiotti shared a few words.

“You’re the only one that I know in this world that could walk into that hot kitchen, working for minimum wage, with a smile on your face every single day for 14 years,” he said. “We’re here to thank you for that, because we love you, respect you, and we know what you’ve been through to get this house and put food on your table.”

To reveal the gift to Hamilton, they played a game of “Let’s Make a Deal.” But rather than choosing only one door, she was allowed to pick all three.

Behind the first door was personalized “Jessie Hamilton Day” clothing and a catered lunch, while the remaining two doors had giant checks for Hamilton — one for $6,675 to spend on herself, and another for $45,000 to cover her mortgage.

“If I hadn’t been sitting, I would have fell down,” Hamilton said. “I was hollering and crying.”

Hamilton’s children were also deeply moved.

“My mom would give you the shirt off her back and the socks and shoes off her feet,” said Hamilton’s daughter, Yonetta Tircuit, 55. “Now she can actually slow down and take care of herself.”

That’s exactly what Hamilton intends to do. Now that her mortgage is paid off, she’s given notice at both her jobs and hopes to take a vacation once it’s safe to travel.

She also plans to use her newfound free time to see the Fiji brothers more often.

“They were my kids. They still are,” Hamilton said. “They used to tell me they loved me, and now, they’ve proved it.”