Mother’s Day can be a time of joy for some, but for others, it’s an emotional reminder of what’s missing.

For one pizza delivery guy, it became an evening of unexpected “mothering” when he was mistakenly paired with a lively senior in need of a little company.

Read on for the full story!

Went to senior center to deliver pizza — left with new mom

I’m a pizza delivery guy and was winding down for a much-needed early close on Mother’s Day Sunday.

I’m one of the only people on staff who didn’t have family plans that day — my family situation is what you might call “complicated” — so I worked all morning while short-staffed and was pretty beat.

It was especially emotionally hammering to deliver so many pizzas to happy families visiting or hosting their moms.

I was ready to go home and drink and forget about the whole stupid holiday.

That’s when he got a last minute order.

So, I get a late call just a few minutes before we closed, and decided to take it because money is money and it was a pretty big order — six pies.

So I loaded up and realized about 3/4 of the way to the destination that the address was for the local senior center.

He’s delivered here before and it was always a good experience.

They used to order all the time, tip really well, and make really sweet conversation before the pandemic, so I was psyched to see they were safe and steady enough to order pizzas again.

I snuck them a side of breadsticks from a jerk who never tips and always harasses our female drivers that I was dropping off along the way.

By the time he’d call to complain, we’d be closed.

The delivery started off routine enough.

I got there and was glad to finish off what had been an overall really rough day with a pleasant trip to the senior center and carried the food to the front desk.

The receptionist offered to carry the pizzas back, but she looked frail enough to be a senior center resident herself, so I said I was happy to get them where they were going.

She COVID-checked me and gave me a new mask, and I found my way to some event room where they’d ordered the pizzas.

But he wasn’t a fan of what he found.

And… it was a total gut punch.

Literally just a roomful of sons and daughters visiting their mothers and having some kind of festive party.

My good mood went away real quick, and I dropped the pizzas on the table and shuffled out.

He was having trouble finding the person who placed the order.

But… I realized that while they’d prepaid for the pizzas over the phone with a credit card, they hadn’t tipped, so no matter how bitter I was, I had to make in-person contact with whoever had ordered the pizzas.

Or I had basically just wasted half an hour.

I went around the room asking for “Margaret,” the name on the order, and eventually, someone put me in front of her.

That’s when the whole delivery took a huge turn.

Our shop doesn’t have a uniform or anything, so I started to explain, “Hi, Margaret, right? You ordered—” and she was really frazzled, I guess running the event, so she cut me off.

“Oh good, you’re here! We were starting to wonder. I don’t think Bonnie has been matched with anyone yet, wait right here.”

I tried to cut in and explain I’d just delivered the pizzas and she’d mistaken me for someone else, but it went right over her head.

She pushed an old woman over in a wheelchair and said, practically shouting, “BONNIE, THIS YOUNG MAN IS HERE JUST FOR YOU!”

Bonnie seemed to have quite the lively personality.

Before I could try my explanation again, Bonnie replied, “He is, is he? Well, full disclosure, son, don’t get too attached, ‘cause Jesus has my heart.”

Margaret, the one who’d ordered the pizza, or at least the name we had on it, whispered to me, “She’s a real live wire. Have fun!”

And then Margaret, and my tip, were in the wind.

Bonnie looked up at me and goes, “You like bridge? I hope you brought your checkbook…” and started wheeling away to a table!

I followed her, thinking I’d better not lose track of her until I could return her to Margaret.

He tried once again to get his tip, but they weren’t going to let him leave so easily.

I spotted a woman with an ID badge who looked like she knew what she was doing and explained that I was the pizza delivery guy but someone had left me with this old woman in my charge.

I guess my explanation wasn’t clear enough because I said something like, “Hey, I was actually delivering some pizzas up here.”

And the girl says, “You brought pizza? Aww, that’s so nice! I’ll make sure you’re compensated.”

So at first, I thought, “Great, all resolved now.”

But no.

She gave me a wad of cash, and this organizer disappeared, leaving me with Bonnie and her deck of cards.

He wanted to get out, but he also didn’t want to ditch Bonnie,

I kept looking for Margaret to return this lady to, but also did kind of enjoy making conversation with her, and knew no other deliveries would be coming in since we’d closed on my drive over.

I actually did like listening to Bonnie talk about the YouTube conspiracies she wholeheartedly believed and the spat she was having with the arts and crafts chaperone, and so on.

She even gave me a recipe.

Still, he worried about the optics of it all.

But I was worried that she had dementia and thought I was a family member, or that she was expecting a particular visitor and at any moment, a guy would storm in and say, “What’re you doing with my aunt?”

Or something.

So, finally, I saw the second organizer again.

The one who’d given me the cash.

When he tracked down the organizer again, he tried to explain once more.

I figured Margaret may never return, so I shouldn’t wait for her, and I pulled the organizer aside and said, “Look, there’s been a mix-up, I don’t really know this woman.”

The organizer seemed distracted, she was doing several things at once, and she very casually said, “Oh, there’s no mix-up, the pairings were totally random. You weren’t expected to have much in common. You’ll get to know her. Don’t overthink it.”

And receded back into the crowd while I was still saying, “No, I’m just delivering pizza.”

He was tired of no one listening to him, but his heart got the best of him, so he decided to stay.

At that point, I seriously considered leaving because it wasn’t my fault that these people were unorganized, but Bonnie was waiting for me with this huge grin on her face to play more cards.

It didn’t look like there were any real relatives coming for her, so I figured I would stick it out for a few more games.

I was eventually able to pick up in context from eavesdropping on other “pairs” that this was not a mother-child extravaganza, it was a volunteer event for women living at the senior home without kids or whose kids couldn’t visit them.

That was a huge relief because I would’ve felt really terrible if she was a dementia patient who thought her son had come.

Especially because I was kind of enjoying being “mothered” by her for lack of a better term.

It turns out, he had been needing some nurturing for quite some time now.

It felt really good to have someone asking what I was doing at work and saying they were proud of me for things that weren’t actually a big deal.

She proudly bragged to everyone we passed on our courtyard walk about this silly little employee of the week award I’d just won — basically title only, you get your photo on the wall, but everyone gets it at some point and usually more than once — but she made it feel really important.

And I really secretly loved how she got outraged over minor transgressions on my behalf.

Like, I told her how my landlord is sticking it to me on repairs, and she was like, “He’s quite the ripe hair in the tuna!”

With such sincere gusto.

She said she knew a guy who could “tune him up for me,” and I don’t think she was talking about repairs, but I didn’t follow up.

Haha.

He couldn’t seem to find the right time to duck out of there.

Every time I tried to extricate myself, she’d have another activity she’d want to do.

Once we finished cards, she wanted to do arts and crafts.

Once we did that, she wanted me to push her around the courtyard.

Once we did that, she was “famished from the walk,” (even though all she did was sit in her wheelchair) and wanted pizza.

And I’d fed her two slices before an orderly appeared and angrily informed me she was not supposed to eat pizza.

I don’t know how she then ended up with a third slice, but I seriously did not give it to her.

The party finally concluded, so he left Bonnie with a parting gift.

Finally, the party was winding down, and she wanted me to hang out and watch a game show with her.

About thirty seconds into the show, she was asleep.

I left her a coupon, even though I guess she isn’t supposed to eat pizza, and headed home.

He reflects on the whole experience with a smile.

It was kind of nice to spend Mother’s Day doing Mother’s Day-type stuff.

Really nice, actually.

At this point in my life and career, if you want to call it that, I can have no wholly good memories that involve pizza.

But this was pretty close.

So Happy Mother’s Day to those who celebrated and happy Russian Victory Day to those who didn’t.

This delivery guy ended up walking away with more than just a tip.

What did Reddit have to say?

This unexpected event went so well that he should do it again next year!

This user wondered how much money the delivery guy pocketed.

Doing something kind for a stranger is always a touching thing to read!

Bonnie is sure to remember this night for years to come.

He never expected to spend his afternoon playing cards with a senior, but sometimes life throws the best curveballs.

What was supposed to be a quick drop-off turned into an afternoon he would never forget.

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