Stephanie Morrison braced herself when she was approached by an elderly gentleman during her morning walk.
Morrison, who was pushing a double stroller and wearing a newborn, was waiting for the man to say, “You’ve got your hands full.”
“We get that a lot,” Morrison, 33, tells TODAY.com.
Instead, the stranger offered eight words of encouragement.
“He goes, ‘Wow. You’re going to have a lot fun,’” an emotional Morrison shared on TikTok. “He was so sweet and I could see the memories flash through his eyeballs as he said that to me.”
In the video, tears are streaming down Morrison’s face.
“I didn’t know I was going to cry,” Morrison tells TODAY, noting that the kind exchange caught her off guard.
Morrison and her husband, Michael, who live in Huntington Beach, California, are parents of Mackenzie, 4, Dustin, 2, and 11-week-old Brayden.
“A lot of people gave me a hard time for wanting to have a third child, and I think (the man) affirmed the choice we made,” Morrison says. “There is so much joy in motherhood.”
After Morrison recounted the story on TikTok, other parents began sharing their own moving interactions:
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“An older man in the grocery store stopped me when my son was 8 months old and said “Young enough to still talk to the angels, put in a good word for me!’”
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“My only son is 7 months. I can’t have anymore kids due to life threatening complications at birth. The other day a man said to me “he gets to have you all to himself, isn’t that so special?’ I cried.”
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“I demoted myself at work when I got pregnant for better hours and no travel. One of the Dr’s I work with told me, ‘Mothers show love through sacrifice.”
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“This older woman stopped me and my kids jumping in leaves and she said, ‘I used to bring my kids here. you and your babies will have these memories forever.’”
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“We were in a hotel elevator a few weeks ago with our 2.5 wild and adorable daughter and an older gentleman said, “Enjoy every second. We’re in town visiting ours in law school this weekend. Enjoy all of it.’” And he started tearing up.”
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“An old man came up to my husband and 1 year old at a restaurant — I thought he was gonna comment on how loud my son is — he said, ‘I see how you two spoil your son — keep it up! Best time of your life.”
As for Morrison, she says she is still surprised by the man’s kind words.”I kept looking at the man to make sure he was real,” Morrison tells TODAY. “I’m convinced he was an angel.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
