Dad's grave was always polished and covered with flowers. When they learned who was behind it, they cried

A kind gesture can mean the entire world to someone whose life is shattering into a million pieces due to the loss of a loved one. These people provide them a safe space to rely on when their trust in the universe has eroded. Entrepreneur and social media personality Daniel Lubetzky — who goes by the username @daniellubetzky on Instagram — shared a video of a beautiful ritual a stranger undertook for Lubetzky's dead father.

Lubetzky’s sister Tammy often visits their father’s grave to offer flowers to him and line them along his headstone. She was surprised to see how the tombstone was always crystal clear and polished as new, despite none of his family members undertaking this cleaning and maintenance work. During one of her recent visits, she also discovered fresh bouquets of flowers around the grave, as if someone they had known forever came by regularly to keep an eye on it. Lubetzky's first thought was that it must be a friend of Dad's who had been visiting, and other such “theories” — but they were surprised when they learnt the truth.

During one of her recent visits to the cemetery, Tammy discovered that it was the kind groundkeeper who cleaned their late father’s tombstone every week and left flowers on his “place of rest.” She was surprised to learn the reason behind his gesture — 23 years ago, when their father passed on, Tammy had told the groundskeeper all about him, how he survived the Holocaust, and how he had always been kind to whoever he'd met throughout his life. That inspired the groundskeeper to give back by taking extra care of his place of rest. Through the video, Lubetzky thanked the man whom he had never met in flesh and bones.

A 2019 study by Lee Rowland and others explores the “range of kindness” by analyzing whether helping a friend and a stranger has a different impact on our minds. The results reveal that kindness, in general, has a positive impact on us, generating feelings of happiness, regardless of who we direct the gesture towards. Another study by Ryo Oda and others was conducted among 209 Japanese-speaking people, where they discovered that individuals were more likely to be kind towards other prosocial fellows — their “feelings of compassion, trust, and willingness” is what drove them to extend support. This clarifies why the groundkeeper chose to honor the dead man, who was very kind while alive.

The wholesome video rendered people emotional — the daughter of the groundkeeper @onebgaby_ wrote, “Hey, that’s my dad! We all deserve kindness on this Earth, regardless of background or history,” while @josephsteinberg exclaimed, “Very nice! The fact that your father was kind even after suffering at the hands of the unkindest of humans says a lot about him.” @kirisxgtvz wished, “And people want to act like this never happened. I hope your dad is at peace wherever he is, that he’s content and happy, that he never has to remember the horrors he went through. This made me tear up. The strength that man had is unimaginable, may he rest in peace,” and @rachelrocks18 expressed, “I will never forget watching my grandma, on her hands and knees, polishing my grandfather’s headstone and pulling the weeds around it. Even in her early 80s. Took care of him until the day she joined him.”

You can follow Daniel Lubetzky (@daniellubetzky) on Instagram for more lifestyle content.