Sometimes random acts of kindness come from the most unexpected of places. Sure, we’ve covered stories of people giving generously at restaurants and even school playgrounds, but this is the first time that we are featuring one that takes place in a hospital—or OUTSIDE a hospital, to be more precise!

The tale starts with two people whose situations couldn’t be more different. Gloria Porter, a sweet, ailing grandma, was in the midst of a hospital stay for pneumonia. To pass the time, she would often look out the window and watch the construction workers laboring away directly outside of her room.

“We had been looking out the window watching them, because that was, like, entertainment,” Gloria recalls in her interview to WTAE. She certainly isn’t the first woman in history to snag a glimpse of a cute construction worker!

Gloria had been watching one of the said steel workers on the project, Jeff Reick, one morning when she began to become worried about his safety. Jeff’s current position at the time was quite precarious, as he was scaling a scaffolding in blustering, winter conditions.

As Gloria and the other patients watched in fear, Jeff made quite the suave move: he looked over at the grannies and waved. So, to return the gesture, the grannies waved back. Sweet, right?

With the interaction still fresh in his mind, Jeff took a piece of chalk and scrawled out a note onto one of the I-beams facing her window. The simple message read: GET WELL.

Get well sign written on I-beamWTAE via LittleThings
In response to Jeff’s “precious” sentiment, she found a large piece of paper and wrote STAY SAFE in big, block letters. That granny wanted that steel worker to know that he had made her day!

stay safe note in windowWTAE via LittleThings
When Jeff first saw the sign, his jaw absolutely dropped. “The sign kind of crushed me,” the construction worker explains. “I just didn’t know how she knew to stay safe, because, it’s like, it’s kind of like iron worker lingo, ‘stay safe’.”

The worker credits “leading by example” as the defining reason as to why this odd pair was able to make contact in the first place, and we agree. Sometimes you just have to go out on a limb and start a conversation with a stranger!

Luckily, Gloria has since fully recovered. She’s out of that hospital room and back in fighting shape, but that doesn’t mean that she still doesn’t like to think back and reminisce about the kind interaction with that steel worker. “There’s so many bad stories… and they were wonderful at the hospital,” Gloria gushes. It’s so nice to hear she had a good experience!

Believe it or not, this adorable act of kindness even inspired someone else to perform a unique one of their own. To see how this unexpected friendship affected another anonymous community member, be sure to click on the video below. It’s cheery stories like this that make us so excited to wake up in the morning and face the day!

What do you think of this sweet good deed? Have you seen something similar happen before? Have you ever done a good deed for a stranger? Tell us all about your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below!