Woman clicked a random photo of a family — 10 days later, a grieving husband revealed why he was grateful for it
A spontaneous interaction or an act of kindness by a stranger has the power to turn such moments into a lifelong memory. A similar thing happened with a family when a woman asked if she could click a picture of them with their ice cream cones outside a restaurant. It turned out to be a meaningful memory for the family and later, the dad reached out to the stranger to thank her for it. The woman, Joyce Rhinehart, shared the story on Facebook and the internet felt that it was some divine intervention.
Rhinehart expressed that the story gave her "chills" and brought tears to her eyes. "On June 8th, I was at Rita's Italian Ice with my grandson, Blake, treating him after his tennis lesson," she began. While leaving the restaurant, she encountered a "sweet family" sitting together on a bench and enjoying custard cones. "Something urged me to ask them if I could take their picture, which they did not hesitate to agree to," Rhinehart wrote about the family of four, a mom, dad, a daughter and a son. Rhinehart asked the daughter to take her phone and text the picture to one of their cell phones. "Left to take Blake home and explained to him how I have done this before when I see cute family moments of total strangers, so they can have the memory."
Rhinehart often did such things during vacations. On Father's Day, a few days after the incident, she received a text message from an unknown number while sitting on her patio with her phone. The message read, "Dear Madam, you took our picture in front of Rita's on June 8th. My wife passed away yesterday and this is the last picture we have together as a family," the man wrote. "Please accept my deepest gratitude for your kindness, it means the world to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart." Rhinehart encouraged people to "Never underestimate a simple act of random kindness," after the incident.
She talked to the man a little more and found out that his wife had been sick for a year. "My heart is heavy for this sweet family I don't even know, and the tremendous gift that was left to them because I listened to my gut that day," she expressed. "This has the hand of God." Many people shared their thoughts on the incident in the comments. Charlene McPeek wrote, "This is a total God moment. He never leaves a stone unturned and will use us to do great things if we listen to his whispers. I will carry this story in my heart for a very long time. Thanks for sharing, Joyce."
Julie Mullen Boyer commented, "That wasn't your gut you were listening to. You did the work of an angel right there! You were definitely a messenger from God that day! What an awesome thing!" Angie Goings Jackson remarked, "Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. So glad you were able to catch the last memories of them together!" Lyn Schmidt Cherobee expressed, "Wow, it gave me chills. You are such a sweet person, always there to help someone and in this case, didn't know how much your act of kindness would mean for this family."