Heartbreak.
It comes for all of us at some point in our lives.
“She looked up at me through her large blinder style sunglasses and with a trembling voice said ‘I don’t have him anymore.’ My heart sank.”
Do you know what this man did, in light of the most terrible news anyone could ever hear?
He rushed out onto the street and gave a total stranger the best hug ever!
This man is the Mr. Rogers of his neighborhood, and he doesn’t even know it.
There’s a very good reason why Mr. Rogers was so popular.
It’s because he was the sort of godly person who everyone wished lived right next door to them.
And that’s exactly the sort of guy Aldon O’neill Ward III is!
Aldon mostly puts a smile on people’s faces when they walk by his front yard, but one day when he noticed a familiar elderly woman with tears in her eyes, he knew in his gut that she wouldn’t be grinning or laughing anytime soon.
He didn’t even know her name, but that didn’t stop him from rushing out onto the street to give her a great big ol’ bear hug.
That right there automatically puts him in the category of the most amazing neighbor ever!
Aldon shared the story of the bittersweet encounter, which was captured by his home’s security camera, on his Facebook page.
It all started back in 2011…
“Since 2011 I’ve seen an older couple walking the neighborhood every morning and evening. Matching windbreaker outfits, large white new balance sneakers and a stick in hand.”
Every day the couple would wave at Aldon and then blow kisses at his excited dogs.
Rain or shine, they were always in a good mood.
“Always saying what a beautiful day it was even if they were walking in the rain without an umbrella. We never exchanged names but I knew where they lived and they knew where the boys and I lived.”
It continued like that over the years, with the couple occasionally stopping by for a quick chat.
But in the present day, the story takes a heart-wrenching turn…
“I’m watering my freshly laid sod. Griswold, my standard poodle, is close by vigilantly protecting me from dragon flies and the occasional squirrel. A windbreaker suit swooshes slowly down the street below. Alone, the woman approaches. I wave, she waves. I exclaim in a joking manner, ‘where’s the better half?'”
The woman, whose name Aldon still did not know, slowed down and began to shake her head.
You know, the kind of ominous shake that people give you when the news isn’t good.
“She looked up at me through her large blinder style sunglasses and with a trembling voice said ‘I don’t have him anymore.’ My heart sank.”
Aldon acted on instinct, and rushed into the street with a tightness in his chest.
“‘Ma’am?’ I said, as I approached her. She turned and with tears streaming from behind her large sunglasses not another word was spoken, we hugged. Big hugged. Like she was my mom or my grandmother.”
The woman was immediately comforted by the hug and sobbed into Aldon’s chest for a moment.
“I’m just trying do the things that we used to so I still feel like he’s around…. I needed that.”
Sometimes all you need is a heartfelt hug from a kind stranger to get through your day.
And sometimes we need to be reminded of all the selfless acts of kindness that still exist, and will always exist, so long as we have like Aldon out there.
You can watch the heartfelt moment when she walked by Aldon’s home in the video below.
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