This is a sweet tale of a pizza delivery driver who went the extra mile. Actually, he went the extra 225 miles from Battle Creek, Michigan, to Indianapolis, Indiana, just to give a man in hospice care a final taste of his favorite pizza. (Cue our Grinch hearts swelling.)
Like the paramedics who stopped to buy ice cream for a dying man en route to the hospital, this driver—18-year-old manager Dalton Shaffer—deserves our applause. News station WTTV reports that Shaffer was working a normal shift at Steve’s Pizzeria in Battle Creek when a call came in from a man who said his son-in-law had late-stage cancer and was in hospice; the caller said a card from his favorite pizzeria, Steve’s, would really brighten his son-in-law’s day. The patient, Rich Morgan, had actually been planning to visit Battle Creek that weekend for a taste of Steve’s pizza, but was too sick to make the trip.
Shaffer thought he could do better than just sending a card. He was finishing his shift for the night, but before leaving, he packed up a pepperoni and mushroom pizza and hopped in his car. Arriving at the hospice center at 2:30 a.m., Shaffer delivered the pizza to Rich Morgan and his family.
Steve’s Pizzeria doesn’t normally deliver, period, let alone to another state.
But the kindness Shaffer showed made a huge impression on Morgan’s family; his wife posted a long thank-you to the pizzeria manager on Facebook. “I am beyond overwhelmed and humbled by this act of genuine kindness. Dalton brought our family so much joy—and the best pizza in the world—at a really difficult time,” she wrote.