‘A blessing.’ Sneaked photo of a friendship forged at a Pascagoula gym goes viral.
Every few years, Pascagoula resident David Samuel is showered with praises from strangers because of a photo of him working out with a man at Planet Fitness.
Sound familiar? It might to any of the hundreds of thousands who saw, liked or shared the 2017 Facebook post.
According to the post, a man with special needs interrupted Samuel’s workout about 10 times in 45 minutes.
Many people could relate to the story. It reminded Virginia Rivers Lowery of her uncle with special needs.
“He might tell you the same thing over and over a thousand times, but he was special to us,” commented Lowery. “Thank you for bringing attention to this man in the orange shirt and for his kindness toward this special needs young man. The world needs more men like the one in the orange shirt!”
The post came to fruition when Ricky Derouen sneaked a couple of candid shots and posted something about the patience and kindness Samuel showed with every handshake, hug and question.
“Not only did this man smile, laugh, give him workout advice multiple times, and joke back with him while getting in his own workout but he didn’t care who was watching while doing it,” said Derouen. “His patience, compassion, and friendliness was next level admirable.”
As he wrapped up his workout, the man with special needs spoke to Derouen. He “approached me and pointed to the man in the orange shirt and said ‘that’s my friend’ with a huge smile on his face,” wrote Derouen.
Samuel said he and Derek Medjesk, the man he met working out, did end up becoming friends and working out together again.
The original post earned more than 153,000 likes and 7,000 comments. Five years later, the post hasn’t lost steam, getting shared and re-posted thousands of times on social media.
“That’s because he treated him with respect and like a man and didn’t treat him as a special needs or disabled person,” commented Gulfport resident David Newman. “He just treated him as a regular person. He did something that everyone should do.”
One recent repost by a Facebook blogger on Mississippi Hot Topics reached 4,600 reactions, 1,600 shares and 162 comments in the five days since it was posted.
“The best part is where all those people speak positive things,” Samuel said. “[The response] is a blessing.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 3:47 PM.
