BY DANIEL GAITAN | daniel@lifemattersmedia.org

An Ohio restaurant shipped mocha milkshakes to a dying woman hundreds of miles away to help brighten her final days.

For nearly 50 years, Cleveland Heights-based Tommy’s Restaurant has served thousands of its famous milkshakes. But this is the first time they received such a special request.

“This was my first request like this,” owner Tommy Fello told Fox 8. “I wasn’t even sure if we’d be able to do it.”

The request came from Cleveland Heights native Emily Pomeranz, who lived near Washington, D.C. and was facing pancreatic cancer in an area hospice.

“As she was doing her swan song as she liked to say, I said, ‘Hey, is there anything you’re going to miss in terms of food’?” friend Sam Klein told the local TV station. She said, “‘What I would do right now for a Tommy’s mocha milkshake.'”

That’s when Klein reached out to Fello to make it happen.

“It touched my heart, and I said, ‘boy, I’d love to be able to do something,’” Fello added.

Fello packed the shake with dry ice donated by Pierre’s ice cream and sent it express to Pomeranz’s hospice in Arlington, Va.

Pomeranz died last week, but the story carried on. Since Klein posted the story on Facebook, it’s been viewed thousands of times.

“She leaves behind a treasure trove of memories; a legacy of laughter, joy and caring; grieving family and friends,” Klein posted on Facebook. “But, she was able to fulfill her wish of one last Tommy’s milkshake thanks to the caring and good heartedness of Tommy at Tommy’s. So, my friends, if you are in Cleveland Heights, or anywhere near there, please stop in at Coventry, order one of those incredible milkshakes and ask for Tommy (he is the one cooking in the middle of the restaurant) and say, ‘This one is for Emily. Thank you for sending one to her.’”

According to the company, soon after Tommy’s started out as a small soda fountain in 1972, Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed the eatery has the “Best Milkshake East of the Missisippi.” The shakes and menu have stayed the same ever since.