When a spunky 88-year-old woman from Connellsville, Pennsylvania landed in the hospital for a week with pneumonia, she was faced with the task of getting better and not getting too bored while recovering in a bleak hospital room. So her attention was drawn to the daily commotion outside her window at Excela Frick Hospital.
There, the senior watched steel and ironworkers build a new front entrance to the hospital. One day, she decided to do something sweet and touching from her third-floor room that has gone viral. People are oooing and ahhhing over what the construction workers did first to spark Gloria’s response.
Screenshot via WTAE-TV
The woman, Gloria Porter, had a simple message for the construction crew working outside of her hospital window. It was a cold and snowy day, and she was worried about the workers’ safety. She wrote on a piece of paper, “Stay safe.” For ironworker Jeff Reick, those two simple words really got to him.
“That sign kind of crushed me.”
That’s because Jeff had been watching Gloria watch them for a week. He had written on a construction beam “Get well” and made sure she saw it one day. He wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone in that room, that the workers outside were thinking of her.
“I saw the lady at the window looking out. I thought it would be a kind gesture just to tell her to get well. I didn’t think much of it. I just tried to make someone feel a little better.”
Screenshot via WTAE-TV
His simple words worked. Gloria was touched. She thought the workers’ message was incredibly thoughtful. That’s when she sent them back the “stay safe” note.
“This one guy looked over at us and waved, so I waved back. I looked down on the beam and he had written, ‘Get well.’”
But Gloria’s two simple words, “Stay safe,” really hit Jeff and his co-workers hard. That’s because it’s ironworker lingo to “stay safe,” he said. He didn’t know how she knew how much those two words meant to the workers, but she made an impact, too.
“When I saw ‘Stay safe,’ in the window, I kind of snapped my head around and said [to my coworkers], ‘Did you see that?’”
Screenshot via WTAE-TV
Jeff shared their exchange of messages on social media and people were touched by the two strangers’ bond forged high up in the air. In fact, shortly after he shared their story, a stranger arrived at the construction site with an envelope full of lunch money for Jeff and his co-workers, so they could enjoy a warm meal together.
“I just try to lead by example and be a good person. I just hope everybody would do things like that because the world is not a very nice place.”
Here’s more about this sweet story between an ailing senior and a construction worker.
Jeff and Gloria’s story is a sweet one that has touched many people. Who knew that on a cold and snowy day, two unlikely people would cross paths and end up helping each other. What do you think of their exchange?
