5-Year-Old Girl Gives Grieving Officers Big Surprise (Photo)

A group of highway patrol troopers from Ohio and Kentucky stopped to get some food after an emotionally draining funeral for a fellow trooper. As they were getting their food, they were approached by a little girl who shocked them with what she had in her hands.

Sarah Yockey went to a McDonald’s near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with her 5-year-old daughter, Isabella Gregory. While the mother and daughter were getting some ice cream, they spotted a group of troopers — six from Kentucky and one from Ohio — sitting down for a meal.

The troopers had just come from the funeral of slain Kentucky State Police trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, who was shot during a traffic stop, according to WDRB.

When Isabella saw the troopers, she told her mom she wanted to do something special for them.

Trooper Eric Homan recalled what happened.

“We drove all the way from Ashland, had left at 5:30 a.m. and none of us had eaten anything all day,” Homan told WDRB. “We were finishing up eating and Isabella comes out of nowhere and she’s holding a tray of ice cream sundaes. She stepped right in between us all without fear and was so proud to thank us for protecting her and her family.”

“She used her allowance she earned this past week to put smiles on their faces,” Yockey said. “She said, ‘Their friend died, and it’s not fair because he has a family too.'”

Homan, who was at McDonald’s with fellow KSP troopers Tony Duncan, Chris Lee, Joseph Boyce and Pat Hamilton, as well as detective Jeff Kelley and Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper Sgt. Chris Smith, said that Isabella’s gift was much appreciated by all of the officers.

“Was a long day, and after a long week we were physically and emotionally drained,” Homan said. “Her gifts of ice cream and her words of encouragement was more than a treat for out stomachs. It lifted our spirits.”

Isabella posed for a picture with the troopers, which was shared on Facebook by Yockey and the troopers.

“Thanks to this fine young lady who used her allowance to treat us to ice cream today after the funeral services,” Homan wrote in a post. “We needed that! Relief comes in all different shapes and sizes… Thank you for supporting us Isabella, you are living proof of what makes coming to work everyday worth it.”

Readers shared their thoughts on the touching story on the Mad World News Facebook page.

“I am so sorry for the loss of your fallen brother,” one user commented. “God Bless him RIP, I will be praying for you and your family. What a awesome little girl.”

“Parents raised this little girl right – what a generous spirit,” another user wrote. “Unfortunately this is an anomaly of how most are raised.”

Sources: WDRB, Mad World News/Facebook / Photo credit: Pixabay Adam Kliczek/Wikimedia Commons, WDRB