It was love at best friends first sight when 4-year-old Norah met Dan Peterson, a.k.a. Mr. Dan.
Norah and her mother were shopping when she seemed to be magnetically drawn to an 81-year-old man who was shopping alone in the store.
“Her face lit up like the sun, she waved excitedly, and said ‘Hi old person! It’s my birfday today!'” Nora’s mom Tara Wood said in a Facebook post. “He was furrow-browed but his expression softened when he realized she was speaking to him. ‘Well hello little lady! And how old are you today?’ he asked. They chatted for a few seconds and it was super adorable.”
The two said their goodbyes and Norah and her mom went back to their grocery shopping. However, a short while later, Norah asked her mom if she could take a picture with Mr. Dan.
They went and found Mr. Dan and he was more than happy to oblige.
“And so they posed together, and then they hugged each other like they were long lost friends,” Woods said.
The ladies thanked Mr. Dan for his time but explained that they were the ones to thank.
“He teared up and said ‘No, thank YOU. This has been the best day I’ve had in a long time,'” Wood wrote. “‘You’ve made me so happy, Ms. Norah.'”
Mr. Dan later told CBS News that Norah served as a “light that just lit me up.”
When Wood went home she posted about Norah and Mr. Dan’s encounter on Facebook and a friend of Mr. Dan’s ended up reaching out to her.
She told Wood that his wife just died and that he hadn’t seen Mr. Dan that happy in a while.
That friend put Wood and Norah in touch with Mr. Dan to plan a visit.
“They came by the house, and sure enough, she grabbed me and hugged me like there was no tomorrow,” said Mr. Dan.
Norah brought Mr. Dan some goodies, a framed picture of the two of them at the grocery store and pictures she colored that he posted on his refrigerator.
Now, Norah asks to go to Mr. Dan’s house every single day after school. While they don’t, Wood and Norah do make sure to call him at least once a week.
Wood says Norah worries about Mr. Dan being alone and asked if they could buy him a dog.
They improvised and brought Mr. Dan a stuffed dog on his 82nd birthday. Mr. Dan says that his encounter with Norah helped to heal his broken heart as he was having a tough time before he met the little girl that day.
“It was one of those days that I’m on my own little private pity party,” he told CBS News.
He said the child lifted his spirits and that even though he hadn’t slept uninterrupted a single night for months before that day, he has slept soundly ever since.
“If I didn’t have anything else to do the rest of my life,” he said. “I have her to love.”
He’s not really sure why Norah chose him out of all the other “old people” in the store to talk to that day, but Wood thinks she has an idea.
“I can only assume there was some divine intervention or stars aligning or she was nudged by the universe,” Wood told CBS News. “I know we’re all better because of it though. Mostly, she just cares about his well-being and his heart. She wants him to be happy… I guess that’s what friends are supposed to do, huh?”
Yes, that’s exactly what friends are supposed to do and these friends are quite the adorable pair. You can watch the beautiful story of Norah and Mr. Dan’s unlikely friendship below.
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