Unexpected hug from boy, 2, meant the world to Rhode Island pizza delivery man

WEST WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) - A simple act of kindness out of West Warwick has gone a long way.

Lindsey Sheely, of West Warwick, said her family had pizza delivered from "Wicked Good Pizza" to their Gilcrest Drive home on Saturday night.

The pizza delivery driver, who's been identified as Ryan Catterson, rang their doorbell around 7 p.m. and dropped off the pizza.

"As Ryan was walking away, my son just bolted past me, ran out the door, and put his arms up and just gave Ryan a big hug," recalled Lindsey. "Ryan just leaned into it, was really cute, really sweet. My son even tried to give him a kiss."

After the encounter, Lindsey went on her Instagram to let her friends know what had happened. Her two-year-old son, Cohen, had just chased after the pizza delivery man.

"I was laughing about it like, 'Oh, my gosh, Cohen just hugged this delivery guy. He's probably like OK?'" said Lindsey.

After posting about it, Lindsey checked her doorbell camera video, which captured the entire exchange.

She also included the video on social media.

"Someone saw that I posted it, and told Ryan about it, who reached out to me," said Lindsey. "He's like, 'I think I was your pizza man would you mind if I shared that?'"

Lindsey said she'd been excited that Ryan wanted to share it. The two of them became friends on Facebook, and that's when she realized how much the hug meant to him.

"I went to his Facebook page and saw that recently lost his daughter," said Sheely. "He had shared that the hug just meant so much more to him and that he just really needed a hug."

Ryan's daughter passed away unexpectedly a little more than a week ago.

"That hug that we thought was something cute and funny, actually meant so much more," she added.

In the video, Ryan is smiling from ear to ear. He can be heard engaging in small conversation with Cohen. He leaves after yelling, "Enjoy your pizza."

"I couldn't believe that this guy was going through the most devastating thing, but his life was still going on. His life had to go forward, and he still had to work and to do his job," said Sheely. "You never know what people are going through. This is such a good example of that."

Ryan told NBC 10 News his other children live out of state. While working, he'd been grieving and waiting for their arrival.

"Just that it was the perfect timing for it, I had been telling my kids and the whole family how much I needed hugs before they came and then that sweet little boy gave me one," said Catterson. "It was almost as if the universe or my daughter had known and sent it to me."

Sheely said other family members of Catterson's reached out to her, to thank her for being so kind to him and for posting the video for them to see.

"If I had been afraid to let Cohen run out the door because we don’t know this man, and that's the world we live in, then we would've missed out on this entire touching moment that truly impacted not just Ryan's life but his entire family and mine," said Sheely.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with funeral expenses for Catterson's daughter.