Janet Thaeler says she appreciates the kindness Jason Perron gave her at the end of a long hard day.
Janet Thaeler says she can still remember looking toward Layton Hospital as she drove away and seeing Jason Perron, a safety and security officer, standing in front of the building, smiling and waving goodbye to her. He had no idea his simple smile and wave would bring her to tears when she thought back on it.
Janet had made a late-night visit to the Layton Parkway Clinic inside Layton Hospital because her daughter was sick and she feared she had strep throat or COVID-19. After her daughter was tested and she was informed her daughter should remain in quarantine while waiting for her test results, Janet realized that would mean cancelling a small but important family gathering they’d planned for the next day. It was just the latest piece of bad news she’d received at the end of a long, hard day. By the time her daughter had been seen and tested, it was near the midnight closing time for the clinic.
“Lights were out, people were getting ready to leave, and people were cleaning up,” she says.
What she didn’t know was that Jason watches to see whenever a patient or caregiver is about to make a night-time trip to their car. Whenever he can, he tries to be there so he can walk them out.
When Jason started walking Janet and her daughter to their car, she assumed he was done for the day because she could see a security car in the parking lot. She thought he was on his way home. Jason didn’t know that Janet hated the idea of going out into the dark alone with her daughter.
Jason Perron, a safety and security officer, says he always tries to walk patients and caregivers to their cars when they leave late at night.
“He was talking and just being so friendly and he walked me all the way to my car door and said, ‘Have a good night,’” she says. “And as I was driving away, I saw him standing in front of the hospital and I realized he was just walking us to our car out of the kindness of his heart. He wasn’t getting off duty or leaving for the day.”
She wrote about her experience in a Facebook post and shared how Jason’s simple act of kindness moved her.
Her daughter later tested negative for COVID-19 and strep throat.
Jason, who’s a former Weber County deputy, says he wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. He tries to be proactive and help people whenever he can.
“A uniformed presence always brings down the crime level,” Jason says. “A neighborhood that’s regularly patrolled will always have less crime than a neighborhood that’s not. If anybody’s thinking about victimizing someone near the hospital, and they see a uniformed person out there watching over the parking lots and escorting people out, they’re a lot less likely to try something. I stand there and I wait until they’re driving away because when they’re still sitting still, they’re still at risk for victimization.”
Jason says he was glad he could help Janet when she needed him.
“It’s part of the culture we’re trying to build here,” he says. “I try to live the Intermountain culture, the culture we’re trying to foster amongst our caregivers. I’m a people person. I like being friendly.”