“You never know what someone is going through. Be kind. Always.”

That simple message became deeply personal for one grieving father, all because of a small, spontaneous gesture from a two-year-old boy.

One evening in West Warwick, Rhode Island, Lindsey Sheely had just stepped outside to pick up a pizza order. Her two-year-old son, Cohen, came running after her. As the delivery driver stood on the porch, Cohen did something beautifully unexpected—he stretched out his arms and gave the man a hug.

The brief but touching moment, captured by Lindsey’s doorbell camera, seemed like an innocent display of childlike affection. Moved by the encounter, Lindsey posted the video to her social media, hoping to spread a little joy.

She had no idea how much it would mean to the man on the receiving end of that hug.

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The Man Behind the Smile

The video quickly spread online. Days later, Lindsey received a message from a man named Ryan Catterson, the pizza delivery driver in the video. He asked if he could share the clip. Lindsey agreed—then looked at his profile.

Her heart dropped.

Just one week earlier, Ryan had lost his 16-year-old daughter, Alyssa.

“After losing my daughter the previous week, it hit me because it felt like she was there,” Ryan told WLNE. “It really meant a lot to me.”

That hug from a child he’d never met wasn’t random—it was healing. Unexpected. And just what he needed at exactly the right time.

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A Hug from the Universe

“It was almost as if the universe—or my daughter—had sent it to me,” Ryan later said in an interview with NBC 10 News.

For Lindsey, the experience felt nothing short of divine.
“I believe in divine intervention,” she said, “and know that Ryan was the one who delivered our pizza for a reason.”

She calls her son’s hug “a little blessing from God.” And for Ryan, it was a moment of peace in the midst of unbearable grief.

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A Powerful Reminder

We often move through life unaware of what others may be carrying behind a smile. In just a few seconds, one child’s pure act of kindness reached beyond words—it touched a broken heart and offered a kind of comfort that only genuine human connection can give.

As Lindsey reflected:
“You never know what people are going through. This is a good example of that.”

And it truly is.