As mothers, we tend to second guess ourselves when it comes to our children. Are we teaching them the right things? Are we being too hard on them? Are we being hard enough on them? All these things we worry about. Sammie Welch was no different. As a single mother she second guessed herself all the time.

Welch says she learned that keeping her little boy, Rylan, busy was the best way to avoid drama like temper tantrums, crying, and arguing. That’s why when she was riding the train with three-year-old Rylan, she kept him busy doing different things in hopes that she would avoid disrupting other passengers.

To keep her little one preoccupied, she played games with him, asked him how is day was, and even squeezed in a little lesson about manners and how to be polite on a long train ride. She didn’t want him acting up around other people that were just trying to get home at the end of the day. Rylan ended up being a perfect passenger and never fussed once about the ride.

A few stops before Rylan and Welch were scheduled to get off the train, a man exited and handed her a note. It took Welch a moment to realize what it was, but as she opened the piece of paper and read it, she couldn’t believe what she was reading.

The note included a five pound bill and read, “Have a drink on me. You’re a credit to your generation. Polite and teaching the little boy good manners.” As if that wasn’t already enough to make her day, Welch turned the note over and read more. “P.S. I have a daughter your age, someone did the same for her once. Hope when she has children she is as good a mother as you.”

The note meant the world to Welch. She says she always worried about her parenting skills and to have someone that she didn’t even know tell her she was doing a good job meant more to her than the gentleman could ever know. She wanted badly to be able to meet him and tell him thank you.

Welch posted the story on Facebook and reached out to a local newspaper in hopes of finding the man who had been so kind to her. Lucky for her, that man saw the story in the newspaper and asked the newspaper to connect him to Welch.

She finally got to meet him face to face. His name is Ken Saunders, a 50-year-old project manager who really does have a daughter Welch’s age. Welch finally got the chance to thank Saunders for gesture that she so desperately needed.

Saunder’s actions are proof that even the tiniest and most simple acts of kindness may mean the world to someone else.