Kids really love the garbage man. I don’t know if it’s the massive truck that they’re enamored with, or if kids, who somehow find unusual joy in getting dirty, just feel like they’ve found their people when they see the garbage man.
Whatever the case, the bond between the people who collect our trash and our children who create it has a way of warming our hearts and going viral.
Four-year-old Rosie Evenson and her two sisters live for Thursday morning trash pickup. It’s been a standing date between the girls and their garbagemen for years. The girls’ mom, Angie, says that every week the kids would “stop what they were doing and rush to the window to wave to the garbage men.”
Angie Evenson
Brandon Olsen and Taylor Fritz are the guys on the truck in the Evenson’s Blue Earth, Minnesota, neighborhood. They look forward to their weekly greeting as much as the kids look forward to giving it. “The guys would always go way out of their way to wave big,” Angie explains. “You could tell they always made an intentional effort to look for the girls.”
Brandon and Taylor loved their bond with the girls in the window so much that last year they delivered Halloween candy as a token of their friendship, and gratitude for the waves.
Brandon Olsen
In return, the girls all drew and decorated pictures for their garbagemen friends. And the next Thursday morning—like clockwork—the guys showed up to collect the trash. Angie gave them the drawings along with a short note.
Unlike the pictures from her girls, the note wasn’t a “thank you,” but instead some heartbreaking news.
Brandon Olsen
Angie’s note told Brandon and Taylor that the girls may not be at the window every Thursday now because Rosie had been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer.
“I wrote a little note saying, ‘Our little 3-year-old, Rosie, was diagnosed with cancer and has treatments on Thursdays, but keep looking for us even though sometimes we will be gone,’” said Angie. “I just wanted them to know we weren’t stopping waving at them.”
Brandon, who has three young kids of his own, said he was devastated to read the note. “This family forever changed my life—I read the note and was in near tears,” he said. “Being a father, it’s scary to think, ‘What if it were me in that situation?'”
Angie Evenson
After immediately brainstorming ways they could help the Evenson family, Brandon and Taylor approached their boss. They asked if they could donate their own trash pick-up service (which is an employee benefit), to the family for a year.
Their boss and general manager of Hometown Sanitation, Mike Johnson, was overwhelmed and completely inspired by their selfless offer.
“When Brandon and Taylor approached me with the letter that Angie had written and asked if they could donate their free service, I was immediately touched and wondered what we as a company could do to help,” Mike said.
He decided that Hometown Sanitation would donate the year of free garbage service to the family.
“We realize it’s just a little bill,” Mike explained. “But not having to worry about that one thing—we just thought that it might be helpful.”
Brandon and Taylor presented the news to the family with a heartfelt letter from “the Crew at Hometown Sanitation.”
Angie Evenson
“As parents ourselves, we can only imagine what this is like for you,” the letter read. “We want to wish you the best of luck as you fight on and battle through…stay strong, fight hard, stick together.”
Angie says the small act of kindness was anything but small for their family. “What they did made us feel like we were not alone,” she continued. “It was just a simple gesture, but to us, it was huge.”
Angie Evenson
Rosie is still battling her way through, but it’s no surprise that her smile gets a little bigger on days when she gets to see her friends, the garbagemen.
“To them, they are still just their friends the garbagemen,” explained Angie. “And I love that their relationship has remained unchanged. I love the simplicity of the friendly smile and the wave—and, as a mother, I love seeing that there are still good people out there.”
Though Rosie is kicking cancer’s butt, and finished with several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, she’s only about halfway through her cancer treatments. Doctors say the Evensons can expect a long and uncertain road ahead.
Angie Evenson
“Everyone tells us, ‘Oh, you’re so strong.’ But we feel so weak,” she explained. “But the little things that people do carry you along, and it’s kind of like you borrow the strength from other people.”
The family has started a GoFundMe site to allow others to help with the expenses associated with Rosie’s treatment, and our prayers are with all of them.
