Man Ordered A Pizza After His Wife Passed Only To Open The Box And See A Note She’d Left Inside

Kust is a 59-year-old widower from Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. His wife, Cheryl, had passed away in 2016 after a lengthy struggle with cancer, leaving him utterly heartbroken and alone. And while understandably finding the loss of his beloved wife hard to cope with, Kust fell into a dark and depressive state.

What’s more, Cheryl had previously spurred her husband on, even when she was in the grip of illness. “You have to be strong, you have to be strong,” she had said, according to an April 2017 report by CBS New York. But as the long days went by without Cheryl, Kust was finding it harder and harder to follow her advice. In fact, he was beginning to seriously struggle.

Still, even though Kust thought that all hope was lost, he kept going – living each day as it came. But as it began, March 25, 2017, did not look like being a good day for him. What would have been Cheryl’s birthday had fallen the previous week and the anniversary of her death was looming. But things changed for the better when Kust headed down to a local pizzeria. Indeed, after the widower arrived, the restaurant staff told him something that blew his mind.

Specifically, Kust was informed that someone had bought a pizza for him; the person in question, though, was anonymous. Confused and touched by this random act of kindness, Kust then headed back up the block with his free pie. But when he got home and opened the box, he saw something that immediately made him weep.

That’s because the pizza box had a secret message written on the inside lid; the words read, “From one family to the other… stay strong” in colorful letters. And Kust was stunned by the incident for two reasons. Firstly, he was amazed that anyone would buy a pie for him as an anonymous gift.

But the thing that choked him up the most was what the colorful note said. The words “stay strong” were comfortingly familiar to Kust – they were close to the phrase that his late wife always used to repeat to him. To the tearful, grieving widower, it felt like a message from above.

“I wasn’t crying because I was sad anymore, I was crying because I felt like I got a message from [Cheryl],” Kust told CBS New York. But the uplifting slogan wasn’t written by his wife. Instead, it was just a message of encouragement from a stranger who also frequented the local pizzeria.

Furthermore, it turned out that Kust’s free pie was one of many. The local pizzeria was Albert’s Pizza in Ronkonkoma, a district of the Long Island town of Islip, and the outlet had recently rolled out an initiative designed to bring smiles to its customers’ faces. It all started just after President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, in the hope of lifting the Long Island community’s spirits and bringing them closer together again.

Politics has always been a contentious issue that can really divide people, and the heated Trump-Clinton election campaign totally split the U.S. in 2016. However, Richard Baer, the co-owner of Albert’s Pizza, came up with a way to ease tensions. And his pie-based initiative was genius in its simplicity.

The idea was that customers of the pizzeria could pre-order a $15 pizza for someone. This could be for persons known or unknown, but each pizza would have one thing in common. The box would have a personal message written on the inside. There were two rules – the note had to be positive, and it had to be non-political. Afterwards, the box could be displayed on the walls of the Ronkonkoma outlet and a picture of the recipient posing underneath it posted to social media.

The scheme started, moreover, with a pizza donated by two of the pizzeria’s employees, who chose to give a pie to a person who was grieving the loss of someone special. The message they wrote inside the box lid read, “To someone who just lost a loved one: Here’s your sign that they’re with you.”

A woman who had just lost her mom was given the free pie with the accompanying heartwarming message from the Albert’s employees inside. And from then on, the “pay it forward”-style pizza initiative really caught the community’s imagination. By February 2017, in fact, more than 70 people had received free pizzas.

The original intention behind the Albert’s Pizza scheme may have been to simply make someone smile; when Kust received his free pie, though, it did a lot more than that for him. Not only did the widower burst into tears when he read the message inside the box lid, but it also changed him in a fundamental way.

In fact, Kust was so touched by the kind gesture that he did something unexpected, and not something the pay-it-forward plan had provoked before. In particular, he composed an emotional handwritten letter to Baer, as he wanted the pizza outlet owner to know what a difference his scheme had made to him. And in it, Kust told Baer that the note inside the pizza box had changed his life for the better.

The letter began, “You don’t know me, but on March 25 you turned my life around.” And in a video posted by CBS New York to YouTube, Baer can barely hold back the tears as he tries to read Kust’s emotional missive to the camera with its author by his side.

As his voice wavers in the clip, the pizzeria man is also seen trying to explain to CBS reporters how satisfying it was to launch an initiative that has brought so much joy to so many people. Baer is so emotional that he is unable to finish his sentence, giving a grateful Kust the opportunity to give him a big hug.

And the heartwarming scheme has certainly got people talking. In fact, it seems as though the uplifting pay-it-forward story has suitably inspired people to be kind to one another. “I love this. Way to go. What if we all did one great thing like this for someone else?” an online user wrote in the comments section of PMQ Pizza Magazine’s website.

At the end of the video of the CBS New York news report, however, Kust has one final message. It’s directed, moreover, to whoever it was that anonymously purchased the pizza with the particularly resonating personal message for him. “I want to thank those who bought it for me and let them know that they saved my life,” he says directly to camera.

All it took, then, was a simple message inside a pizza box for a heartbroken man to realize that not everything is lost when you say goodbye to a loved one. Above all, though, this story reminds us all to show a little kindness to one another, because you never know what other people are struggling through. But it's not the only time a hidden message in a pizza saved someone's life. In fact, the situation was even more dire for one woman in Florida who ordered a pizza and hid a message inside that sent workers scrambling.

The pizza makers first saw a pretty average request appear in the system: one large pepperoni pizza with garlic sauce for dunking. As they began to work on the order, they checked for special requests and stopped dead in their tracks. Was this a bad prank? It couldn't be. The order had come from a regular customer after all. Her name was Cheryl Treadway.

Cheryl Treadway couldn't have been happier with the life she had carved out for herself. The 25-year-old mother of three lived with her boyfriend Ethan Nickerson in Florida, where the family enjoyed life under the warm sun nearly all year-round. Cheryl loved Ethan, but it was her kids who truly kept her going.

Any parent would be proud to raise three beautiful sons like these. They were well-behaved and absolutely adored Cheryl. While they also loved their father, Ethan sadly struggled with drug addiction, which caused occasional outbursts and dangerously irrational behavior. Cheryl was always fearful that, at some point, the kids would find themselves stuck in the middle of a violent incident — and sure enough, that's what happened.

Cheryl knew Ethan loved his children more than anything. But he was in the throes of a serious drug problem, and the substances completely took his ability to process reality in a calm and rational way. One spring afternoon, Cheryl and Ethan got into a particularly heated argument while he was under the influence.

Thankfully, the heated incident began while the children were at school. As the argument grew more intense, Ethan snatched Cheryl's phone out of her hand. His eyes were filled with inebriated rage, and Cheryl feared for her safety. Then, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen. Cheryl now knew the situation was life-threatening, and she needed to find a way out.

Cheryl felt relief that her children weren't there to see their father brandishing a knife at their mom. But the school day was ending and she was going to have to pick them up soon. Ethan knew full-well that if he let her take the drive alone she might seek help, or run. So he hopped right in the car with her.

What followed was the most uncomfortable trip of Cheryl's life. She stared out at the road in a daze while Ethan sat next to her, glaring violently at her face. She wanted to cry out to passing cars, but she knew Ethan was ready to lash out at a moment's notice. The couple arrived to the school, picked up the kids, and returned home. The kids had no idea what was unfolding, but Cheryl soon started plotting their escape.

First, she worked with what she knew: her kids were hungry after a full day at school. Cheryl saw this as her opportunity to reach out to someone outside of the home. And there was one place in particular she knew the kids loved...

Like most children, her kids loved pizza. They were regular customers at Pizza Hut, so Ethan didn't find it odd when Cheryl suggested they order their usual meal. Ethan, however, kept a close watch on Cheryl as she ordered the food, ensuring she didn't pull a fast one and call somebody for help.

As Cheryl finished their order, the kids were still completely oblivious to the tension in the house. But she knew that Ethan could change that at any moment. The mother anxiously waited for the restaurant to receive her order and send a delivery driver to the house.

Their local Pizza Hut was one of the busiest restaurants in town. But Cheryl was a regular, so the workers recognized her name. They knew to put extra care into ensuring her pizza was perfect. But then, they came to a sudden halt when they noticed something alarming on the order ticket.

Every ticket had an area where customers could write special requests. Usually, these wishes went along the lines of: "extra pepperoni please" or "pizza well done." But Cheryl's ticket was a little different and was something workers could not ignore. She had written, "Please help. Get 911 to me. 911hostage help."

On shift was Candy Hamilton, the branch manager with 28 years of Pizza Hut experience under her belt. When shown the ticket, she didn't hesitate to act. She knew Cheryl well – and this was no prank. Immediately, she phoned the authorities and gave them the address. Hamilton only hoped she had acted before something horrific happened.

Cheryl's anxiety was through the roof. Would the Pizza Hut employees pay attention to the words she wrote? Would they think it was a prank? It seemed like a lifetime passed as she and Ethan sat in silence. Suddenly, a horde of police vehicles pulled up out front. Ethan hadn't spotted them yet – and Cheryl knew once he did, he might physically hurt any one of them.

The police, having no idea what kind of situation they were walking into, couldn't just barge into the home. But, they knew there was the possibility of kids involved based on what the Pizza Hut manager told them about the family, so their tactics required extreme precision. Suddenly, Cheryl burst out of the home in a frenzy.

Cheryl flung open the front door of her home and sprinted towards the police cruisers with her youngest child in her arms. In her frenetic state, she figured the youngest of her sons was the most helpless. Since she could only take one with her, she grabbed him and fled to the officers.

The first officer Cheryl reached was Lt. Ludden, and he immediately knew by her demeanor that the situation the unit was about to enter was dire. He did his best to calm the mother and ask for details. Once he learned there were still two children inside along with an armed man on drugs, he took immediate action. There was absolutely no time to spare.

Fortunately, Lt. Ludden had been in similar situations many times throughout his career. He knew exactly how to deal with circumstances that required de-escalating in order to avoid a potentially lethal outcome. Cheryl stood by with a horrified look on her face as police spoke with Ethan. Then, 20 minutes later, a miracle happened.

Ethan not only put down the knife he was swinging around recklessly, but he actually walked out to the police units and gave himself up. It was the best possible outcome for everyone involved. Cheryl and her kids, although quite shaken by everything, were finally safe. The incredible series of events was soon picked up by the news.

Ethan's face was quickly plastered all over the news, and Candy Hamilton of Pizza Hut was recognized for her quick thinking. In food service, things only stay calm for so long, however. At a neighboring fast-food chain, a similar emergency turned everyone's attention to a different issue. This time, a Chick-fil-A employee heard a strange cry through the drive-thru window and was forced to intervene.