What started as a whim turned into something much more: While eating breakfast at the Sea Ketch restaurant in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, last week, singer Andy Grammer spotted what he called "five SUPER CUTE elderly ladies" eating together at a nearby table.
Grammer — who lost his mother, Kathy, nine years ago — said seeing the women made him "miss my mom hard," and he decided to pay for their breakfast. "I don’t know them, and didn’t want to bother them, but I just did it," he wrote in a Facebook post.
Though he said he would usually have left without saying anything, he again acted on impulse and told the women he paid for their bill and why — and that small action gave him the chance to share a special moment with one of the women at the table.
"The lady on the end popped up with arms wide open and said, 'COME HERE,' I lost my son and really needed this,'” wrote Grammer. "And then she gave me a mom hug I needed, and I gave her a son hug she needed. We are all so connected."
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He added the hashtag "I'm not crying, you're crying," but we think it's safe to say just about everyone is crying now — Grammer's post has been liked over 33,000 times on Facebook and shared almost 6,500 times.
One of the 1,300 comments on the post is from the mom he hugged, Mary Conant, who posted a picture of the group of women who were at breakfast that morning. Conant's son, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Sean M. Judge, was a husband and father of three who passed away from cancer in July 2012 at the age of 40.
Conant commented to Grammer: "Sending you lots of hugs. Your Mom sent you to us today."