Grieving grandfather’s actions when he sees a toddler moves mom to tears

The world is so new to toddlers and as soon as they learn something they can’t wait to share it with everyone.

Colby and Alyssa Hacker’s toddler son, Owen, loved shouting ‘Hello’ and ‘Bye’ to people, but on this occasion, a man’s response to her son’s loud greetings left her in tears...

Witnessing the firsts in your child’s life are so precious for parents so understandably Owen’s parents didn’t care who he shouted these greetings at, as it was his way of expressing himself and developing his language skills.

owey has been squatchin today 😍

Posted by Alyssa Hacker on Saturday, March 25, 2017

The Oklahoma mom was out shopping with her son at Target in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when Owen decided he wanted to play with some dinosaurs sitting on the shelf.

Her son grabbed three dinosaurs and put them in their cart. Like any tot, Owen was confused about which dinosaur he wanted and ended up picking all three.

An older man, who was also in the store, stopped and said, “Hey, sweet boy,” and played dinosaurs with little Owen. Alyssa shared the incident on Facebook, writing:

“The man got his wallet out and pulled a $20 out, he put it in Owen’s pocket on his shirt and said ‘I just lost my 2-year-old grandson last week. You take this money and buy this boy all three dinosaurs.'”

Alyssa said the man rubbed Owen’s back, wiped his tears and walked off. Owen then shouted ‘thank you’ after the man.

‘Hold on to these memories’

“There is still some good in this world,” wrote Alyssa.

Despite feeling a little protective over Owen when the man first approached them, the mom ended up “crying in the middle of Target.” 

Alyssa used the $20 to buy the three dinosaurs. She said: “These three stuffed dinosaurs have more meaning than I ever thought a stuffed animal from Target could have. We will hold on to these memories forever!”

Her post went viral and Alyssa referred to her sweet son as a “blessing” and was elated to share his light with the world. Alyssa also expressed:  “I did pray that night that God would give me the ability to be able to teach and translate to Owen what he did for that gentleman as well as what the gentleman did for us.”

this momma just cried in the middle of Target. We were at target waiting on Grammi and we found some dinosaurs. Owen…

Posted by Alyssa Hacker on Saturday, September 16, 2017

This sweet encounter will stay with this mom and grandfather forever and I hope one day Owen can understand the magnitude of this man’s actions and know the adorable response he gave him.