The garbage truck made its way through their neighborhood every Thursday and stopped at one particular townhouse. The driver would get out of his truck and stand on the side of the street, waiting. But what on earth could he be waiting for? She watched as three-year-old Brooklyn Andraki approached the man. She wondered what was going on. She quickly got her phone from her bag and started recording the incident.
Delver Dobson was well known in the community. He’d been a sanitation worker in that neighborhood for years. Even though he was a reserved man and a majority of people had never spoken to him, a neighbor had the opportunity to get to know Delver up close. One day, the events that followed were recorded on video and have been seen by people worldwide. Bloomington, Illinois, was the setting for this story.
There are a lot of unspoken things that go on in our communities that we can learn from this story. Delver Dobson, as previously said, was not a particularly gregarious individual. This, however, does not imply that he was rude. In fact, he appeared to get along well with one family in the area—the Andrakis. Each Thursday, Dobson used to greet the Andrakis family with his distinctive greeting when the garbage truck rolled through the neighborhood, honking and waving at the Andrakis every time it passed by their house. It was his routine. The question is, why? What was his bond with them? The answer is straightforward: he had never met them before.
Brooklyn, the Andrakis’ three-year-old daughter, was a massive admirer of the area’s beloved sanitation worker. It was a treat for her to see the enormous truck drive past her house on Thursday mornings. For some unknown reason, and she made sure everyone knew about it. Every time the garbage truck passed, she waited at the window with her mother and waved. That was the highlight of her week. When questioned about the event, her mother, Trassa Andraki, said, “To Brooklyn, he is our favorite wonderful, cheerful garbage man.”
It was Brooklyn’s fourth birthday, and it was a fantastic day. However, it was not without flaws. She was heartbroken over the fact that it was Wednesday. Meeting Dobson as he drove his truck down the block would have improved her day. Brooklyn and Trassa, on the other hand, had devised a strategy to compensate, and it was all witnessed by one of the locals who didn’t think twice about filming it for all to see.
It was Thursday, the following day, which meant that Brooklyn got to see Dobson again. She wanted to make sure that he felt included in her birthday celebration, even if he was not there. Brooklyn and her mother got up early the following day and stood in front of the property with one of Brooklyn’s celebration cupcakes. They smiled at Dobson and signaled for him to come over. When the truck finally came, Dobson saw Brooklyn and Trassa, and just like every other week, he waved and honked at them.
But then he noticed that the mom and her daughter wanted him to stop, and so he did. He walked out of the truck and walked towards Brooklyn and Trassa, and his heart melted when the little girl with a shy smile gave him the cupcake while Trassa told him about how it was her birthday yesterday, and they wished he would have been there.
As a mom, I can’t even describe how happy it made me that she got to meet him finally,” Andraki told the press when she was questioned about the story some days later. “She was literally starstruck and could not even say a word. I had to do all the talking for her, and she is never usually short on words. I explained to him that he makes our day every Thursday, and we really appreciate the honking and waving and how special of a day it is for us,” she added. “After he left, we continued on to daycare. Brooklyn was unusually quiet in the back seat. I asked her if she was okay, and she said, ‘Mommy, I’m so happy.'”
And the story doesn’t end there. One week later, Dobson’s truck was rolling down the street again, and as usual, Brooklyn and Trassa were waving at him from their yard. But suddenly, Dobson stopped in front of their house and got out of the truck with a box. With a smile, he handed the box to Brooklyn. What could that be? Brooklyn and Trassa couldn’t wait to find out. As they opened the box, intrigued, it was full of toys from Brooklyn’s favorite movie, Frozen.
The little girl couldn’t contain her excitement. She and her mom wholeheartedly thanked Dobson, and one week later, they had something prepared to thank him. Brooklyn made a big note with the words “Thank you, Delver” written on it. Dobson was moved to tears by this gesture, and from then on, he hung the letter on his truck so the whole neighborhood could see it.
In today’s fast-paced, social media-driven world, it seems like something new goes viral every day. Sometimes these stories end up that way for the wrong reasons, and in cases like Delver’s and Brooklyn’s, it’s because of great reasons. With so many seemingly ordinary people being thrust into the spotlight, many viral stories end up as sensations today and forgotten tomorrow. Delver Dobson’s story wasn’t one of these.
His story was only just beginning. Before Delver became a viral sensation, many people did not know he was quietly working his way up in the world. For Delver, being a garbageman was a job that he took pride in, just as he did with everything else he set his mind to. However, to Delver, being a garbageman was also a stepping stone. He had other plans, and the time came to make them a reality.
