You never know when a selfless act of kindness performed for a complete stranger could transform into something incredibly powerful without your knowledge.

Joyce Rhinehart took her nephew to get ice cream after her tennis session. They saw a nice family enjoying ice cream together as they were leaving. The woman asked if she might take their picture since she suddenly needed to.

Joyce wrote on Facebook, “I took this image and then gave their kid my phone, telling her to email it to one of their phones.”

Joyce was surprised to get a phone message from an unknown number a few days after their brief but enjoyable encounter. She checked the message and felt shivers run down her spine as she read it.

“Dear lady, you took a picture of us in front of an ice cream shop on June 8th. Since my wife passed away yesterday, this is the final photo we have of my entire family. Accept my deepest gratitude for your considerate act. It is quite important to me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

After getting this message, which left her shaken, Joyce stayed in touch with the man and discovered that the woman had been ill for a year. “Amazingly, I gave them this gift that now means everything to them, just because I listened to my instinct and intuition that day,” Joyce wrote in her post.

My heart is now heavy because it is with this adorable family that I don’t even know, she added. “Never underestimate a beautiful gesture you make at random, apparently out of a whim of the moment,” she said.