the saddest thing

i was at  mcdonalds, at the counter yesterday morning, ready to place my order when I felt my dress pants being tugged or pulled at gently, at the thigh. I looked down to see this little boy who needed to get my attention.  He was perhaps 3 or 4 years old, and wearing an Oregon Ducks t shirt and jeans. Light complexioned, he had  freckles, sandy blonde curly hair and green eyes.  I guessed that he was mixed. And he looked as if God had given him the best present of all.  I looked behind me and saw a white, blonde green-eyed woman, perhaps in her early 30s, who had grabbed him after he spoke to me, saying:

                                "Daddy? Are you my daddy?"
 My heart was breaking.
As I smiled at the boy, I told him, "no I'm not. I'm sorry."
His mother said :   "I'm sorry sir. My son's dad  hasn't been in his life or my own since I was pregnant with him. I've showed him pictures of his dad . He's thick, and clean-shaven like you. Every time he sees a black man that fits that description,  he thinks it might be his daddy."

That was the saddest thing I've heard all week.