After losing his parents, boy makes it his mission to cheer up strangers

Jaden Hayes and Steve Hartman.
(Image credit: YouTube.com/CBSEveningNews)

When Jaden Hayes was 4, his father died, and soon after his mother also passed away, unexpectedly, in her sleep. Understandably, Hayes was surrounded by upset relatives and friends, and while trying to cope with his own grief, he decided it was time to cheer people up.

Hayes asked his temporary guardian to purchase small toys like dinosaurs and rubber ducks, so he could pass them out in downtown Savannah, Georgia. "I'm trying to make people smile," he told CBS News' Steve Hartman at the time. He succeeded, and got plenty of hugs from grateful strangers.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.