Saturday, July 25, 2009

Unexpected Acts of Kindness

It's the little things that can thrill a young child's heart. Yesterday, as one of the garbage trucks that come by on Fridays was coming down our street after emptying a dumpster at a nearby church, it pulled to a stop in front of our house. Dylan, Cooper, and I were standing there as we always are when the weather is nice on Garbage Day. Dylan...and now Cooper...is absolutely obsessed with garbage trucks. As Dylan stood beside me in wide-eyed wonder, the sanitation worker jumped out of his big truck and came over to him. "Hey there, big guy!" he said. "I still have a button that needs pushing and a lever that needs pulling." He reached his arms out to Dylan. "Do you think you're up to the job?" My grandson, who is usually quite shy about being touched by anyone he doesn't know well, jumped into the man's arms. The gentleman took him over to the truck and as Dylan pushed the button, then pulled the lever, he explained what the truck was doing and allowed Dylan the time to watch the process. As he brought Dylan back over to me and set him down I told him, "You don't know what a gift you just gave to this little boy!" and I thanked him profusely for taking the time to let Dylan experience being a "gar-car worker dude" for a day. And believe me...Dylan relived it all day long.

4 comments:

Betty W said...

I´m sure he will dream of becoming a garbage man from now on! :)
So cute!

Dori said...

Wow! Jacob's head would have exploded he'd been so excited!! That was a garbage man who was either a dad or a granddad and KNEW!

One morning when he and his dad came to visit me and the newborn in the hospital the helicopter was landing and Jacob could hardly get his words out he was so excited about it! Then as they were leaving the pilot was still there and let him get in the helicopter and look around! Talk about an amazing day for a 3-year-old!

Donna. W said...

What a wonderful thing for that man to do.

Judy said...

Wow!

I LOVE to watch my trash get picked up.

Friday I was watching it out the window while drinking coffee on the porch with my husband.

I was SOOO embarrassed by the vast amount of Pizza Hut boxes that flew by.

Seriously. I wonder if I stood outside if our driver would let ME push the buttons.

How cool for Dylan!