Stranger Raises $186K For 81-Year-Old Walmart Employee So She Can Finally Retire
Growing old in the United States can be challenging. With astronomical healthcare costs and the housing crisis, it can be nearly impossible to retire at times.
81-year-old Nola Carpenter found herself in a tough situation, being in golden years but having to spend her days working at Walmart to pay her mortgage.
Nola had been working for the company for some 20 years but couldn’t retire because of her housing expenses. She needed to pay $170,000 on her mortgage before she could stop working. Considering USA Today reports Walmart’s average wage in New Jersey at $14.66 per hour, it’s no secret that Nola would’ve been working years and years to finish paying off her mortgage if she ever paid it off at all.
However, things took an interesting turn for Nola when a third-party employee working in Walmart spotted her in the break room.
Devan Bonagura (TikTok user @dbon973) spotted Nola and pulled out his phone to record.
“I feel bad,” he wrote in the caption, adding “Life shouldn’t be this hard,” in the video’s text overlay.
Once he uploaded the clip to TikTok, it wasn’t long before the video was viewed millions of times. People wanted to help Nola and a now-deleted GoFundMe was set up to raise money for her.
Check out the viral clip below:
@dbon973 :/ I feel bad. #fyp #blowthisup #sad #walmart ♬ Jocelyn Flores – XXXTENTACION
Within a matter of days, $110,000 was raised for Nola so she could finally retire.
Bonagura met up with Nola to present her with the life-changing amount of money and you can see her reaction in the video below:
@dbon973 WE LOVE YOU NOLA I HOPE THIS HELPS❤️🙏 #blowthisup #fyp #gofundme #nola #walmart #viralvideo ♬ original sound – DBON
Bongarua shared in a follow-up video that the GoFundMe ended up raising the rest of the money Nola needed to pay her mortgage, so she could finally retire in the New Year.
It’s nice to see people going out of their way to help those in need.
