This police officer goes above and beyond the call of duty for a elderly woman in his town

A Kansas cop went out of his way to help an elderly woman left just before the holidays.

The woman, 86, had new medication that kept her from driving (see video), according to KCTV. Her son and another close relative, who usually helped her out, both passed away recently.

On December 23, Overland Park police dispatched Officer Derrick Hogan to her home. The station reported she needed help contacting her church, which provided her food.

"She was a very nice, sweet lady,” Hogan said in a KCTV video. “Reminds you of your own grandmother.”

Since it was a holiday weekend, Hogan wasn’t sure who at the church would be around to answer her call. Instead, he simply asked the woman for a grocery list and headed to the store, where -- using his own money -- he bought more than $50 worth of groceries.

But he didn't stop there. According to a grateful citizen who wrote a letter to Police Chief John Douglass commending the office, he bought her more than she'd asked for.

"She must have mentioned she’d be spending Christmas alone, because he also returned with a small ham, saying you can’t have Christmas without a ham," the citizen wrote. "Also, he returned with a beautiful poinsettia to sit in her house for some Christmas cheer. She tried to pay him, but he refused and wished her a Merry Christmas!"

Hogan says his fellow officers would have done the same thing.

"It's just one of those things," Hogan told KCTV. "It's the human thing to do."