When it comes to spending time in a hospital, I don’t know many people who find a lot of joy in it. Sure, there are babies being born, and life-saving surgeries being performed, but the thing that happens most in any hospital is waiting.
Waiting for the baby to be born, or waiting for the surgery to be over, there’s constantly a lot of waiting going on inside of those sterile walls.
Gloria Porter knows the feeling all too well.
The 88-year-old woman from Connellsiville, Pennsylvania, recently found herself tucked away inside Excela Frick Hospital, waiting. To pass the time, she watched the construction workers outside as they did iron and steelwork on the new front entrance of the hospital building.
One day, Gloria became concerned for the safety of the construction workers after witnessing how dangerous their jobs can be. Little did she know, during her time watching them, the workers had also taken notice of the little old woman in the window. One in particular was an ironworker named Jeff Reick.
“This one guy looked over at us and waved, so we waved back,” Gloria said. “I looked down on the beam and he had written, ‘Get well.’”
Gloria was stunned. The sweet message completely made her day.
“I saw the lady at the window looking out. I thought it would be a kind gesture just to tell her to get well,” Jeff said. “I didn’t think much of it. I just tried to make someone feel a little better.”
And so began a new adventure to pass her time of waiting.
Gloria got two pieces of paper and scribbled an equally simple note back to the workers. Her response was just two words: “stay safe.”
The message hit Jeff hard, and it was exactly the encouragement he needed that day.
“That sign kind of crushed me. I don’t know how she knew ‘Stay safe,’” Jeff said. “It’s kind of like ironworker lingo to stay safe. When I saw ‘Stay safe,’ in the window, I kind of snapped my head around and said [to my coworkers], ‘Did you see that?’”
Jeff was blown away by the instant connection he’d made with sweet Gloria on the third floor. His random act of kindness prompted others to do the same. On Friday morning after hearing the story of Jeff and Gloria, another woman in the community responded with her own act of kindness—buying the construction crew lunch.
It just goes to show that a couple of words and a caring heart can go a long way.
