A man from Michigan was so grateful for the good deed the owner of a Pickering burger joint did for his elderly father that he had to thank her in person.

“People like that need to be recognized,” Rick Rhoads said.

He had been talking to his father over the phone, and found he was down about missing out on some of his favourite foods, while temporarily living at an assisted living home in Pickering. His dad is 86 and has pancreatic cancer.

“We always had a good time eating a good cheeseburger and stuff,” recalled Rhoads.

Rhoads called restaurant after restaurant, in search of a local burger establishment that could deliver a meal to his father.

“Not all that easy to find from Michigan,” said Rhoads.

But then Carmen Kolandjian, the owner of Kips Flamin Burgers on Kingston Rd., picked up the phone. She explained she was tied up with employee training and it would be tough to make a delivery.

“After I explained the circumstances of my father’s failing health, and concerns of his recent eating habits, she took it upon herself to extend her compassion and heart to help a son of a man whom she never met before. She finished her shift at work and drove the food to the local assisted living home, asking for nothing in return,” said Rhoads.

Kolandjian hand delivered a burger and fries directly to Rhoads’ father, Dale Rhoads, with a note attached that said “Hi Dale, this is from your amazing son, Rick. Enjoy your meal.”

“I threw in gravy too,” she said.

She said the man was grateful for his meal.

Rhoads said good people like this are hard to find, and recently stopped by the restaurant to personally thank Kolandjian while in the area to visit his father.

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“It just tugged at my heart strings when he told me about his dad. Pay it forward,” said Kolandjian. “I always try to do a good deed. I have a soft spot for the elderly.”

Kips has been in the community for nearly 15 years, and Kolandjian has owned the restaurant for the past four.