Kier Gaines was traveling solo with his 6-year-old daughter, Emery, when they found themselves in a stinky predicament outside a train station bathroom.
“She needed to go, but the men’s restroom was really filthy and I wasn’t sure what to do,” Gaines tells TODAY.com, noting that he avoids taking Emery to the women’s toilets.
“I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable,” Gaines explains.
As Gaines was debating what to do, he was approached by a custodian named Jorsh Delfish.
“I'm a single dad of a little girl,” Delfish, 31, tells TODAY.com. “I saw he was struggling and I wanted to help because I’ve been in the same situation many times, and it's stressful."
Delfish asked Gaines and Emery to give him a couple of minutes, and then he got to work.
“I wiped down the toilet seat, I sprayed my own cologne so it would smell good, I disinfected everything,” Delfish says. “It's not the first time I've done that. I like helping other parents. I like helping out my co-workers. We gotta have each other’s backs, you know?"
Delfish says working maintenance at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station is a healthy distraction after losing his 1-year-old son, Avis, in 2022.
“I love my job because I get to meet nice people and it allows me to make an impact in my community,” Delfish says.
His impact is spanning further than the City of Brotherly Love. Earlier this month, Gaines, a licensed therapist, posted on Instagram about Delfish’s act of kindness. The clip instantly went viral with nearly 5 million views and thousands of comments.
In the video, Gaines, who was about to board a train back to Washington D.C., said he was nearly in tears after his interaction with Delfish.
“You know that tingly feeling like you could cry? I feel that,” Gaines said. “No one wants to hear a man complaining about what’s difficult for him. No one wants to hear a dad complaining about what’s hard. But for that man to see me struggling … and to clean that stall for my baby, man, that meant the world.”