In the mid of February 2020, Lindsey Sheely of West Warwick, Rhode Island, ordered a pizza from her favorite restaurant, Wicked Good Pizza. After paying for the food, her then two-year-old son, Cohen, ran out to the porch to say goodbye to the delivery man.
He was holding a package of ranch dressing with one hand while his other arm was outstretched for a hug. The pizza guy just stopped boy before telling him, “Enjoy your pizza!”
This was “sweet and funny” gesture for his parents, but it was not simple to the man.
The amazing tinny tried to kiss him, but his mom told him to just blow kisses.
The adorable interaction was captured on Sheely’s doorbell camera. She posted the footage on Facebook and Instagram in next day.
“We thought it was so sweet and funny,” she wrote. “I hope it gives you a laugh and warms your heart like it did for us.”
Then, she received a message from a person who named Ryan Catterson. He told her that he was the pizza delivery man.
When Sheely visited his profile, she was shocked to see Catterson’s 16-year-old daughter, Alyssa, who unexpectedly passed away just a week before.
“It was unbelievable for me as I felt that she was there. After losing my daughter, It really no words for me,” Catterson told WLNE about Cohen’s actions. It was a “little blessing from God.” For him.
And Catterson believes the same.
“Just that it was the perfect timing for it, I had been telling my kids and the whole family how much I needed hugs before they came and then that sweet little boy gave me one,” he told NBC 10 News. “It was almost as if the universe or my daughter had known and sent it to me.”
Sheely posted a link to Catterson’s GoFundMe page for Alyssa, encouraging her friends and family to donate.
“I couldn’t believe that this guy was going through the most devastating thing, but his life was still going on. His life had to go forward, and he still had to work and to do his job,” she told the outlet. “You never know what people are going through. This is such a good example of that.”
Catterson said that her daughter used to live with his ex-wife, Danielle McCord, in California. McCord said that Cohen’s seemingly simple gesture had such a huge impact on Alyssa’s dad. She said the child’s actions were a lesson on empathy.
“It’s so easy to miss people and their internal pain. Even with our daughter, we didn’t know her pain. I can’t help but be grateful that someone saw his pain and could be there for him,” she said.
It was reported that Alyssa struggled with mental health problems growing up. For Catterson, Cohen’s hug only lasted a few seconds, but it’s a moment that he would treasure forever.
“If I could tell the world one thing, it’s to make sure you check on your kids constantly, because you never know what they might be struggling with internally,” Catterson said in a written statement to Sheely.
There are many dads may feel such pain of lost their children, but we can pray to make them feel their love in other ways, just like this sweet little boy. See that movement of toddler hugs pizza delivery driver :
