Every parent dreads the day when their child too will get absorbed in the labyrinth of cell phones, iPads, and video games. It’s the reality we live in and no matter how hard we might try, keeping children away from these tech gadgets is a battle not many parents can win.
But until that day comes along, there are still moments in every parent’s life when they see their child mesmerized by the simpler things in life. Take for instance this heart warming story that a mother shared on the Love What Matters page, about her daughter who grew fascinated with trains.
Briana Hefley Shepard is a mother who also works in the family’s construction business. Briana’s daughter was still just a toddler when the family moved their offices to a new location next to the railroad tracks. While this was purely a business decision, Briana was about to learn just how personal it would get.
Over the next three years, her daughter religiously perched herself by the large window that overlooked the trains. Briana recalled how every morning her daughter never failed to wave at the passing trains:
“As time progressed, it became their ritual. They’d blow their whistles, she’d run to the window, they’d open their windows, and everyone would wave and smile ear to ear. I teared up almost every single time.”
It was the smallest, yet sweetest gesture that made both Briana and her daughter happy every single day. Until, of course, it was time for the daughter to head to school. Briana remembers just how hard that transition was:
“Her transition to daily school hit me a little harder than I was expecting, but it hit me the hardest the first day the train came when she wasn’t there. They blew their whistles, they opened their windows, but I was the only one standing there just crying and weakly waving.”
The second day, Briana put up a sign saying that her daughter had started school and that she would no longer be a fixture at the window, waving to her friends on the train. Thinking this would be the end of it, Briana, continued on at work hoping to soon put this beautiful memory behind her.
Little did she know that those at the train yard had missed her daughter’s presence, just as much as Briana had. One of the conductors stoped by not long after:
“Today they’d had a short train, so they stopped down the tracks, walked to our building, and knocked on our door. Oh did I cry. They had seen my sign, but couldn’t make out what it said. They had assumed she’d started school, but had to make sure. He said that her waves had made their days. For three years they’d shared these moments.”
The conductor, wearing his bright yellow uniform, was there to let Briana know that her daughter was missed tremendously. And then he asked if he and the rest of the crew could send her a little present as remembrance of the last three years of friendship, to which Briana said yes!
Briana summed up the experience best when she said that:
“Witnessing their unconventional friendship over the past several years has been nothing short of magical. To know it impacted them just as much as it impacted us, fills me with love and hope. The visit today and their ongoing kindness to my daughter has reaffirmed my faith in goodness and humanity. These are moments we’ll always remember.”
That small Facebook post ended up being shared almost 2,000 thousand times, with over 15,000 reactions. Here’s to the little things in life!