This browser does not support the Video element.
Toddler hugs pizza delivery driver who just lost his daughter
(Video courtesy: Lindsey Sheely)
WEST WARWICK, R.I. - A Rhode Island family's doorbell camera captured a touching moment, where their young son hugged their pizza delivery driver.
What they didn't know was how much the sweet gesture meant to the driver.
Lindsey Sheely shared the video to her Facebook page, showing her 2-year-old son Cohen running out to give the man a hug. Only after her video spread online did she hear from the driver, identified as Ryan Catterson, whose 16-year-old daughter recently passed away unexpectedly.
"After losing my daughter this past week, it touched me because it was like she was there," Catterson told WLNE. "It really just meant a lot to me."
Sheely called her son's hug for Catterson a "little blessing from God."
"I believe in divine appointments and know that Ryan was the one to deliver our pizza for a reason," she wrote.
"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," Sheely told WJAR. "You never know what people are going through. This is such a good example of that."
Catterson said little Cohen's hug couldn't have come at a better time for him.
"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 the station. "It was almost as if the universe or my daughter had known and sent it to me."
Sheely shared a GoFundMe at the bottom of her video's caption to help cover Catterson's daughter's funeral costs. For more information, click here.