Doorbell Cam Shows Toddler Running to Hug Pizza Deliveryman Who Just Lost His Own Daughter

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This story was last updated in February 2020.

A family’s doorbell cam caught a heartwarming video of their 2-year-old running out of the house to give a big hug to the pizza delivery driver. Upon posting the clip on Instagram, the toddler’s mother learned how serendipitous that gesture truly was—the driver was grieving the recent loss of his own daughter.

It was Saturday, Feb. 15, when Lindsey and Josh Sheely received a pizza delivery at their family home in West Warwick, Rhode Island. To everyone’s surprise, as the delivery driver was walking away, their 2-year-old son, Cohen, ran outside the front door to hug him.

According to Sheely’s Facebook post, the little one “tried to give him a kiss, too.” The two parents found the interaction “sweet and funny,” and after figuring out their doorbell cam caught it, they decided to share the clip on Instagram.

Not long after posting the video, the delivery man, Ryan Catterson, learned about it and reached out to Sheely. “Little did we know what Cohen’s hug to this stranger would mean,” she recalled in her post. As it turned out, Catterson was a father going through an unthinkable heartache. “We found out that Ryan unexpectedly lost his daughter recently, and that hug from Cohen was a little blessing from God,” she added.

Could the toddler have somehow intuited how much the grieving dad needed some comfort in his grief? Sheely seems to think so. “I believe in divine appointments and know that Ryan was the one to deliver our pizza for a reason,” she explained in her Facebook post.

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Catterson’s daughter, Alyssa, passed away unexpectedly on Feb. 9, less than a week before his interaction with little Cohen. She was only 16 years old. Her family started a GoFundMe page to raise money and help with the funeral costs. At the time of writing, they managed to raise an impressive $27,742.

Within days of Sheely posting the touching video on Facebook, it became a viral hit and has over 170,000 views to date. Many people took to the comments section to express their condolences to Catterson’s loss and also their amazement at the serendipitous moment.

One such comment read, “Oh wow. How neat that Cohen’s innocent appreciation blessed this man. Definitely a God thing!”

(Courtesy of Lindsey Sheely)

While another remarked, “Amazing little guy. It’s so unbelievable [how] children sense people’s feelings. Bless your heart and prayers to the family that lost their loved one. My heart goes out to you and your family.”

And a particularly touching comment came from Catterson himself, “Thank you so much for posting this! This week has been a rough one and that really put a smile on my face. He is such a sweet little guy.”

The man explained, per NBC 10 News, that his other kids were out of state, and before meeting the toddler, he was telling them how much he needed a hug. The child’s gesture brought some much-needed solace. “It was almost as if the universe or my daughter had known and sent it to me,” he said.

(Courtesy of Lindsey Sheely)

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