Teen helps elderly man cross the street during hailstorm in act of kindness
"The attention that this getting is inspiring," said the teen's father.
— -- Sometimes a simple act of kindness can make a world of difference.
For this elderly man, that was certainly the case when Elvis Ingersoll, 14, rushed out in a hailstorm with a huge umbrella to help him across the street.
“The hailstorm lasted only 4 or 5 minutes at the most. He could not have gotten caught at a worse time,” Elvis’ dad, Ken Ingersoll, told ABC News of the touching moment caught on camera.
Ingersoll owns a family-run restaurant named Gracie’s in Vallejo, California, where Elvis occasionally works on weekends.
“Elvis is one of my triplets and they rotate Sundays to work, and it was his day,” he explained.
When the father and son noticed the older man, a Gracie’s regular who lives catty-corner to the restaurant, crossing the street “as the sky opened up,” Elvis leaped into action.
Without hesitation, he grabbed an umbrella a previous customer had left a few weeks ago and ran out to shield the man from the hailstorm.
“Elvis, like the rest of my kids, are good-hearted kids,” said Ingersoll. “So many things had to happen just in the right order for this video to be possible, starting with some person two weeks ago that forgot to take their umbrella home with them. It was sitting in a corner of the dining room. I thought about moving it to the storage room several times but never did.
“Then there is Ricky, the guy has a heart of gold, who comes in most Sundays for breakfast and just so happened to be there at the right time,” Ingersoll added of another regular, Rick Buenaventura, who recorded the act of kindness during his meal. “It’s weird how things happen. Things have to line up just perfectly for that even to happen and for that event to be recorded.”
Ingersoll is happy his son’s simple gesture is getting such a positive response on social media.
“The attention that this getting is inspiring, especially with today’s media,” he said. “Too often the attention goes toward such negative events which I think encourages people to do negative things. If Elvis going out there with an umbrella to hold over the man during a hailstorm encourages people to do similar acts of kindness, then we are all a winner.”