Not being able to see your parents for long periods of times can be devastating. This is something children whose parents serve in the military know best.
Brian Kelly is a 5-year-old boy from Belleville, Illinois, who loves spending time with his dad. The two do a lot of fun things together, and that includes yard work. However, now that Brian’s dad Daniel is overseas, serving the country, the little guy feels really sad.
“Brian misses his father,” mom Barbara Kelly says of her youngest son. “He’s a shy boy, and he loves his daddy.”
Luckily, Brian found a way to fill his void, and now the story of him and one of the neighbors who stepped up when the boy needed it the most is melting hearts all over the Internet.
Namely, one day, Brian decided to knock on Dean Cravens’ door and that’s how the lovely friendship started.
“Nobody ever comes to our front door, so I was like, OK, who could that be?” Dean said. “And you could see him through the window, it’s Brian. And I just looked at him and I could tell he wanted to do yard work and I said, ‘Sure, meet me around the garage. We’ll get some tools out and go.’”
For the next six weeks, the newly made friends had a lot of fun together. Dean went on to say that sweet Brian was “taking it upon himself to adopt me to do the yard work.”
Although Dean is quite busy having a full-time job and a family on his on, he just couldn’t say no to a boy who was missing his dad’s company so much. “I just like to see the smile on his face and see him happy doing it,” Dean said and added how he cherishes every moment spent with Brian.
Brian’s mom said she was extremely grateful to Dean for standing as a father figure for her son while Daniel was away. “He’s just there to help Brian get through the days. He’s ‘absolutely’ filling in. That’s exactly what he’s doing.”
Thank you Dean for showing the world how awesome you are for impacting the boy’s life in such a manner.
You can take a look at the whole story and how these two friends have fun together in the video below.
