You may wonder where I get the ideas for these columns I write. They come from people I know or some that I just met. When I scroll through the Internet, I get some ideas from there, too.

Steve Hartman is a TV journalist who narrates a “CBS Evening News” feature called “On the Road.” Here’s one of his stories that caught my eye.

An elderly man named Dan Peterson was years late to his own memorial service. Dan was severely depressed and wanting to die in 2016 after his beloved wife had passed away. One day after he had left flowers on her grave, Dan went grocery shopping at a Publix store in Augusta, Georgia, not far from where he lived. As he rolled his cart down an aisle, his life was about to change.

“Some little girl was with her mother” said Dan, “and the girl looked at me in the aisle and said, ‘Hi old person!’ and then she surprised me by demanding that I give her a hug. Of course, I did. I realized at that moment that I had not felt that happy in a long time.”

The “giver of life” was 4-year-old Norah Wood, who then asked her mother to take a picture of her with her new friend.

“He had a quiver in his voice,” said Norah’s mom. “He teared up, which was just sweet.”

The meeting between Dan and Norah was not their last. He saw the child at least once a week and attended her kindergarten graduation. She also accompanied him on a stroll through his garden, where he showed her the different vegetables he was growing. Each time the two would meet, Norah ran to him to give a big hug.

“And each time we left him,” said her mom. “She would hug him again.”

A picture was taken of Dan, Norah and her sister, along with some of her stuffed animals on the day before he died. At the funeral, Norah was seen looking up to the top of the church while the song, “How Great Thou Art” was performed.

Hartman continued the episode with a tribute. “No story I’ve ever told” he said, “has ever resonated as deeply with me as this one. Over the years, we received thousands of letters from around the world expressing condolences for Dan, and now the condolences are pouring in for Norah. You can’t help but wonder why with so much else going on in the world.”

“I think it was just humanity at its best to love and to be loved,” said Norah’s mother.

Hartman concluded with these poignant words: “This is a prescription for happiness that will get us through anything.”

While teens and adults might have ignored an elderly man like Dan Peterson, small children tend to smile at us older folks. They engage our attention even when their parents are preoccupied with what they are trying to accomplish. I like to think that little kids have no preset system of judgment inside their minds. They trust strangers even to a fault. To their naive minds, another human being must be just like Mommy and Daddy.

They are beautifully innocent until social prejudices teach them to trust no one and to dislike people who are not like them.

A quote from Good Housekeeping explains the advantage children have over those who grow past childhood: “Only a child sees things with perfect clarity because it hasn’t developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don’t expect to see.”

Now, Norah Wood’s approach to a strange, elderly man like Dan Peterson might be considered a bit bizarre by some, but this little girl possessed a special power that sustained his life for another four years. Building relationships at 4 years old can become just one of many qualities Norah may have as she grows older.

Author L.R. Knost wrote, “Strong willed children often grow into strong willed adults who become world leaders, world shapers, and world changers.”

I have another sense about kids who are under the age of 5. They have been nurtured within the recent comfort of their mothers’ wombs, not just by physical necessity, but also by a spiritual essence that has given them the miracle of birth.

To me, there is no greater proof that God, the same life force that created the universe, brings children into this world who come to us with an intuitive knowledge of their spiritual origins.

Perhaps some might believe Norah initiated her relationship with Dan because she was carrying a message from his dear, departed wife, and that message was to be happy in the time he had left on this Earth.

I have always enjoyed non-verbal moments I’ve shared with a child I did not know that often occurs in grocery stores. It’s a simple experience where a baby or a young child draws my attention with his or her eyes. Remarkably, the little one maintains eye contact with me despite being pushed in a cart here by a mother or father.

It’s extraordinary to attract attention from such a little person who has no language skills to communicate, just a beautiful smile that speaks directly to our hearts.

Author Neal Donald Walsch wrote:

“See the world with the innocence of children.

Approach the world with the daring of children.

Love the world with the readiness of children.

Heal the world with the purity of children.

Change the world with the wisdom of children.”

Dan Peterson died with the light from a child in his eyes and the love from a child in his heart.

We should all be so fortunate.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com