A few years ago, I was going through a very tough time. In just a few short months I lost: two dogs, my grandpa, my dad, my job, and my wife (to divorce). My son was still a tiny thing. One night, I was driving with my son on about a 12-hour trip. He got sick and was throwing up.

Luckily, a Target was off the exit I took. It was pouring rain. Disheveled me gets my son inside Target, I’m soaking wet, he is crying and vomiting (any parent knows how seeing your child like this just guts you), and I’m frantically searching for medicine while trying to calm him down. It was at this moment everything just hit me. Here I am this grown man, with a sick child, in a strange Target and I just broke down and cried.

I’m pushing my son around just sobbing. It was soon that this elderly man, maybe 65, just came up to me and talked to me. I just unload my story on this guy. He sat there with me just listening. He got both my son and me to stop crying, even making us laugh a little. Once I was calmed, he just put his hand on my shoulder and said “It’ll be alright son, it always gets better. I promise”. That man has no idea how profoundly he impacted me with his time and those simple words.