Hotel Manager Goes Viral After Mother Posts Photo of Him and Son with Autism
When you’re a parent, you feel your children’s struggles as if they were your own. You feel their loneliness and their pain, and when someone steps in and makes their day a little brighter, that person becomes your personal hero.
That happened for one mother at a Hampton Inn in Pennsylvania in late March. Megan Haas and her family were checking in while manager Kahlief Hill was at the front desk.
Hill was busy on the phone, but that didn’t stop Haas’ son, Colin, from asking Hill if he wanted to see a card trick. Instead of brushing off the 13-year-old’s request, Hill agreed, and they spent time swapping tricks while Hill was on hold.
“I said, ‘Why not? I’m on hold. I have time,'” Hill told WHNT. But that wasn’t the end of it. The next day, Hill struck up a conversation with the young teen again.
“The next night they came in from dinner. I said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ I said, ‘How are you doing with the magic trick I showed you yesterday?’ He said, ‘I can’t remember.’ I said, ‘Come back out, I’ll show you again.'”
To Hill, it was a friendly gesture, but to Colin’s mother, it meant everything. Later, she told Hill what his kindness meant. She also posted a photo of the two on Facebook, where it blew up.
“See this guy right here?” she wrote. “His name is Kahlief. At some point in time on Friday night, while working at the front desk at the Hampton Inn, Kahlief looked up to find a random kid standing in front of him asking if he’d like to see a card trick. Let me tell you all the stuff Kahlief didn’t know.”
“He didn’t know that this little boy has autism. That learning and doing card tricks is a passion of his because it helps to quiet and focus his brain as well as keep his hands busy. He didn’t know that this little boy lost his dad a few years ago, has been on the waiting list for a ‘big brother’ for well over two years now, and lives with only his mom and sister, so very much misses interacting with male figures.”
“Kahlief didn’t know any of that, and was still kind enough to say ‘yes’. He very easily could have told Colin he was busy, or to come back later, or any number of things, but he didn’t.”
“He allowed Colin to hang out at the desk with him for what felt like forever, watching Colin do card tricks and then showing Colin some tricks that he knew as well. He paused when he needed to, when the phone rang or a customer came in, (in the pic he is on the phone, the person he was speaking to had him on hold), but he never once made Colin feel like he was a nuisance or a burden.”
“In fact, when we saw that he had returned for another shift the following day, he made it a point to let Colin know he was geared up and ready to go with more card tricks. So this kind man took time out of his day again on Saturday, still not realizing what a huge impact he was having on Colin, because he was still completely unaware of all the things about Colin he did not know.”
When Hill started receiving an insane number of friend requests, he realized what had happened. “That post popped up, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’ and I instantly started crying,” Hill said.
When Hill’s manager, Jason Gabany, saw the post, he was shocked. “I think that’s Kahlief. That is Kahlief! That’s our property, that’s so cool!’” Gabany said.
You never know what a simple act of kindness might mean to the recipient. Hill is a great example of taking the opportunities that come your way to brighten someone’s day.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
