Last summer, an 83-year-old man at the Holyoke Mall in Ingleside, Massachusetts, hesitated at the top of a down escalator. Fear filled his eyes, and he trembled at the thought of stepping onto the moving stairs.

That’s when 23-year-old Alonzo Johnson noticed him.

Alonzo quickly realized the man was scared and decided to step in. Changing direction, he approached the elderly gentleman and kindly offered to help him down the escalator. The man accepted, and Alonzo gently took him by the arm. Together, they carefully stepped on and rode down.

A friend of Alonzo’s snapped a photo of the moment and shared it on Facebook. The post quickly went viral, garnering over 420,000 likes and more than 25,000 comments.

One comment captured the heart of the story perfectly: “In about an hour, the evening news will air and we’ll be reminded of division, race wars, political mud-slinging, shootings, and other heartaches. But today, violence, race, age, politics, and other social lines were blurred, and one person simply helped another.”

Alonzo, unaware someone had captured the moment, later said, “My mom always tells us to be nice and do the right thing… It’s really the way I was brought up and how I was raised.”

It’s clear that Alonzo’s mom did an incredible job instilling kindness and compassion in her son. Moments like this remind us of the power of simple, human decency.