Pizza and donut karma

We've mentioned Ollie's cravings for Gabriel's Pizza several times in this blog. Ollie is a supremely loyal guy and when he loves something, nothing else will do. On our last blog post I mentioned that he was missing home and everything about it including Gabriel's and Suzy Q Doughnuts. 

We've been regular Friday night customers of Gabriel's for more than 15 years. The kids have literally grown up on it and their regular delivery guy in our area was always so kind to Ollie who was always excited to see "the pizza man". He last saw him a few months ago when we all happened to be home together in between rounds of chemo. When he saw Ollie without hair and clearly ill his eyes and face when he looked at me became so sad, but he was still so kind to Ollie and I as always. This is a caring company and the fact that we've had the same delivery guy for years is also impressive. 

One of the neat things about writing this blog is how many of my friends tell me that their whole family is reading it together and following along. My buddy Neil and his wife Meg read the blog yesterday. Meg wanted to do something to help Ollie so she sweetly tweeted the following: 

And Gabriel Pizza replied: 

Gabriel's team then messaged me directly and told me they'd like to help and asked if their colleague could contact me to arrange delivery. Incredible. 

Ray who is a VP at Gabriel's head office contacted me last night and asked if he could drive some to us in Toronto today! I was bowled over. He asked what our favourites were and suggested he could bring some fresh and some half cooked to be frozen and cooked when Ollie is craving one. He also asked me who Ollie' s team was at Sick Kids so that they could be treated too as Gabriel's has been doing this at hospitals in Ottawa the last few weeks to slow their appreciation to health care workers. 

Ray drove to Kingston this morning and picked up the pizzas at their location there taking extra care to keep them as warm as possible. He arrived mid-afternoon and I went down to meet him. He brought us a ton of pizza and some cool Gabriel's and Ottawa 67's swag for the kids!

Mario and I were in tears at their kindness. Ollie was napping upstairs and Abby was sitting with him while we quickly received the gifts at a respectable social distance from Ray who was so careful, wearing a mask and gloves. We wanted to hug him, but darn COVID! We then thanked him profusely and pointed him in the direction of Sick Kids for his next delivery for the good folks in the Sears Oncology Clinic there. 

Abby loved the new swag and quickly modeled it. 

Ollie woke hungry as usual. He seemed unsurprised that we had a ton of Gabriel's Pizza. He said, "I told you they could deliver here." Ah - the unwavering faith of a 7 year old that everything is so simple! 😝

He really liked his new Gabriel's t-shirt, too.

People are so kind. In the past week friends Micheline and Maria also sent us another yummy pizza in hopes of finding a local Gabriel's equivalent from Pizza Iolo. They definitely get an honourable mention. 

My funny and kind university pal, Nathalie used to live here and sent us some donuts that she felt were close to Suzy Q's from local bakery, Dipped. Ollie ate it, but mumbled that it wasn't Suzy Q's. Mario felt they were better than Suzy Q's (don't tell them!). They were delicious and a definite contender.

Abby liked them, too! 

We know Suzy Q's is busy moving and expanding to serve more folks in Ottawa and we can't wait to see their new places. Plus, we've already had amazing kindness from them. I shared this story on my Facebook page in November 2016:

So Abby and I were on the way home tonight from picking up and dropping off donated items for the Syrian family that our school/church had sponsored...on a whim I thought we should stop in our neighborhood to pick up some donuts to enjoy as part of daddy's birthday celebrations that week. 

As we parked the car and started walking towards the site, a man carrying a box of donuts asked if we were going to Suzy Q's. We said yes and he said they had just closed. :-( "But take mine!", he says. I protested saying that is so kind but I can't. He said he can get more anytime and insisted. So I asked if I could pay him and he protested and said no way, we should just take them. "But I can't take your donuts for free!", I said. "Sure you can, my name is Mark and I own the place and I love giving free donuts!" Got home and they were so delicious! As Abby said, this is "donut karma" for helping others! LOL 

So you see, we understand so well that doing what feels good and right is easy and that kindness begets kindness. We are so grateful to everyone for being kind to us and trying to spark joy in our lives during these difficult times. To everyone reading this, keep doing kind things for others even if it's just sending positivity or prayers their way. It always helps you and them feel better.