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NATCHEZ — On Sunday evening, Carol Hobdy said she thought of a simple act of kindness that could make an essential worker smile during the COVID-19 pandemic — drawing a ‘Thank you’ note in chalk on the curbside by her house.

The gesture didn’t cost Hobdy anything but a little bit of time, she said.

Hobdy already had the chalk on hand and looked up how to draw a garbage truck on Pinterest on Sunday evening so that the drawing would be there for sanitation workers to see when they came by her house on Cemetery Road on Monday morning.

“I was just trying to think of the people who are still out and working and taking care of our essential needs while we’re all sitting inside like couch potatoes,” Hobdy said. “I thought I would thank them and had a little time, so I just drew them a little ‘Thank you’ note on the street before they came by my house on Monday morning.”

Hobdy said she did a similar gesture for her postman last week and was planning a similar show of kindness for her UPS driver.

“I really need to do one for him because he brings me a lot of packages,” Hobdy said with a laugh.

Hobdy said she sat out on her front porch and watched as the garbage truck made its way down the street to her house on Monday morning.

When a man hopped off the truck and picked up her trash, he gave her the OK sign with his hand before continuing down the road, she said.

“I don’t know if he was smiling or not, but I know he saw it,” Hobdy said.