Coworkers Clock 3300 Hours Of Overtime To Help Widower Struggling With Loss Of Wife And 3-Year-Old's Leukemia

Aug 08, 2018 by apost team

Tragedy always strikes when we are least expecting it. Life became devastating for 36-year-old Andreas Graf when his son, Julius, got diagnosed with Leukemia at the young age of just 3 years old. Graf had to stay in the hospital while his son began treatment that lasted 9 whole weeks. Before he could return to live life with the rest of his family, disaster struck in Graf’s life again as he received heartbreaking news.

Mother of the child, Graf’s wife, had suddenly fallen ill and died unexpectedly from heart disease. Knowing that the loss would be detrimental for his sick child, Graf used all of his vacation time from work to spend time with his young son Julius. But the time he took off work wasn’t enough for Graf’s grief, and soon he was forced to go back to his job. He wasn’t given enough time to properly heal from the loss of his wife and the aftermath of his son’s illness. Graf began to become worried that he would lose his job.

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However, the widower came back to a heartwarming surprise as one of his coworkers was looking out for him. HR manager at his company, Pia Meier, decided that the man needed help. She sent out a request to the rest of Graf’s coworkers, asking them to donate some of their overtime hours to him, in order to give him time to properly heal and deal with life’s hardships with his son.

In an overwhelming surprise, 650 employees from the company signed on to release their overtime hours to Graf.

Some of these people were strangers to Graf, but they understood what he was going through and generously donated their hours to allow him to take more time off work. After two weeks of efforts to secure time for Graf, 3,264.5 hours were donated to him in total.

The company Graf worked for allowed him to spend these hours on a paid leave instead, which would amount to over a year off work in which he could spend his time raising his young son.

Graf was overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone at his company and was moved to tears by the grand gesture of strangers and friends.

Thankfully, things are looking up for Graf and his son. Julius just turned 5 this year, and he was able to return home after his chemotherapy treatment. He has hopes to begin attending school soon. Graf remains grateful to his company and the gracious colleagues that helped him take time off to heal along with his son.

What do you think of this incredible story? Let us know in the comments, and pass this heartwarming article along to your friends and family to show them there is still good in the world!