Senior Gets Job Delivering Packages But Doesn’t Realize Homeowner’s Been Recording His Struggles

Apr 26, 2021 by apost team

Back in November 2020, Larry, a senior citizen stroke survivor and veteran caught the internet's attention while working as a delivery driver. Moved by his situation, a large number of people who saw him online started giving him donations after one of his delivery customers took to social media to post footage of him struggling with his mobility while making a delivery. This included residents of his community from Weber County, Utah. While this story shows the power of people coming together to help someone in need out, it also sheds light on the deficits in governmental assistants for veterans and senior citizens in the country. 

This is a story about a community showing kindness to an individual even amidst the ongoing pandemic. It all began with a woman from Plain City in Weber County, Utah, who ordered groceries via DoorDash. Jennifer Weiss noticed something peculiar in the footage of her doorbell camera when her delivery was being made. The delivery driver was an elderly man who, despite a noticeable struggle with his mobility, had handled Weiss’ order with a lot of care and ensured that the items were delivered properly.

“[I started] wondering who he was, and what the situation was, and why he was doing deliveries,” Weiss said to ABC4 News. She was especially concerned if he was going to continue doing deliveries during the winter time when the snow starts falling and stairs and driveways become icy. In the video, the delivery driver is seen struggling to walk up the steps onto Weiss’ porch.

Because his hands were occupied with carrying the package, he had to lean against the wall for support. Each step he took was slow, and when he reached the top, he put her package down gently before making his way down the steps where he grabbed onto the railing for support.

Weiss said that watching the doorbell camera footage made her feel guilty about not just going to the store to get the groceries herself. “It made me kind of feel guilty, to have someone else deliver stuff, just because I didn’t want to go to the store,” she said to ABC4 News.

Weiss posted the footage to Facebook and subsequently found the delivery driver: a veteran named Larry from Ogden, Utah. One of Larry’s relatives saw the post and got them connected.

“I had a few friends that said he should not have to be delivering,” Weiss explained to ABC4 News. “What if we all pitched in and gave him a big tip?” Weiss’ post started making its rounds on social media and people started chipping in for Larry.

“He posted his Venmo information and I think that the donations just started coming in like crazy,” added Weiss. Larry echoed Weiss’ response. “It just blew up and went crazy. There are just so many nice people around here,” he told the news station. 

In an interview with ABC4 News, Larry explained why he had taken up the delivery job despite his health condition. “I had a stroke in June so I was just making extra money because our swamp cooler blew off our roof, we have a big hole, and I got it taped up, needed some extra money to fix that,” said Larry.

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All the money raised was more than enough to help Larry with his expenditure for the repairs needed for his home.

In fact, he says that he no longer needs to do deliveries and that he is sharing the donations with other people who need them. He also urged eager donors to give their money to charities instead. “And I was just trying to get them to donate to like the food banks, and to Toys for Tots or something, instead of giving me money,” Larry said.

Weiss expressed her delight at the way things have turned out. It was a snowball effect of kindness that led to something so much more.

“It may seem so small, it may seem like it could not amount to much but you just never know when it could cause a snowball effect, a huge chain reaction,” Weiss said. “And it could really make someone’s day, their life, it could be the positive that they need.”

While the story is heartwarming and has a happy ending, it received mixed reactions from netizens after it circulated on Twitter. People questioned why an elderly man even had to work just to literally keep a roof over his head.

One Twitter user, Kelly Sullenberger, retweeted the story from ABC7 Eyewitness News with the caption: "Here in America, a veteran who recently had a stroke can’t receive enough assistance to keep a proper roof over his head. This makes me sick.” “Wow this is heartbreaking,” a reply to her post read. 

“This is not a heartwarming story,” another Twitter user, who retweeted from ABC13 Houston, wrote.

“Wt* are we doing that this Veteran has to do this in order to get by?” asked Twitter user @RealPWoodland after Action News on 6abc tweeted Larry’s story.

According to The Daily Dot, Larry’s story is not the first that was intended to be a ‘feel-good’ piece but has instead led people to criticize the lack of welfare given to some American seniors. 

Back in September of this year, one Derlin Newey, who is also from Utah, went viral on TikTok after a Valdez family posted their interactions when he would come to deliver pizza to them.

Like a lot of senior citizens, Newey found that his retirement income was not keeping up with his bills, so after retirement, he went back to work delivering pizzas. Despite being 89 years old, he works about 30 hours a week, reported CNN.

Newey has always worked, and taking on a delivery job meant that he was out in the community, meeting folks and providing a valuable service. However, living on a fixed income that just wasn't enough meant that his life was limited, both by a lack of funds and by having to work during his not-so-golden years.

The Valdez family has always enjoyed their interactions with him and started asking for him by name. Once they had several videos of Newey's pleasant exchanges with the family, the Valdez family reached out to their more than 50,000 TikTok followers and they stepped up and raised more than $12,000 for Newey. 

According to The Daily Dot, Twitter users pointed to Newey’s story as proof of a flawed system “as senior citizens, like Larry and Newey, are not adequately supported by the U.S. government and instead have to rely on personal kindness from strangers to get by.”

What did you think about this story? Do you agree with what people are saying about it online? Be sure to let us know your thoughts and pass this on to others!