They say everything happens for a reason.
This story proves how something as small as getting groceries delivered can really end up changing someone’s life.
This story is one that shows how acts of kindness can help people when they need it most.
It all started when Jennifer Weiss of Ogden County, Utah, decided to order her groceries online and have them delivered.
This is something that many people have started doing since the pandemic hit.
It really was nothing out of the ordinary until Jennifer realized who was delivering her groceries.
Through her doorbell camera, she saw an elderly man struggling as he was carrying her groceries to her door.
Despite having trouble getting up and down the steps, the man, later identified as Larry, took care in making sure her items were delivered with care.
Jennifer told ABC4 News,
“It made me kind of feel guilty, to have someone else deliver stuff, just cuz’ I didn’t want to go to the store.”
Jennifer started wondering who this man was and how he really shouldn’t be out making deliveries.
She wondered if he was still going to do this as the weather gets colder and the snow starts to fall.
Instead of just sitting by, Jennifer knew she had to do something. She had to know who this man was.
So, she took to Facebook and posted on the Ogden, Utah Facebook page to get help in identifying this delivery man. Her post read:
“Ogden, I need your help in identifying this man. He did nothing wrong-in fact, just the opposite.
He delivered a fairly small grocery order of mine from Walmart today and had a difficult time getting up and down my stairs (I only know this from watching my doorbell camera afterward).
He took such care with all of my bags even though he clearly had some mobility difficulties. My heart broke seeing this.”
Not long after the post went live, one of the man’s relatives contacted Jennifer.
It turns out the man, Larry, was trying to make some extra money to fix a swamp cooler that blew off his roof.
There was a big hole that was taped up, but it needed to get fixed permanently. Delivering groceries was giving Larry some of that extra money he needed.
Despite recovering from a recent stroke, Larry knew he needed money and wasn’t afraid to do what needed to be done.
When Jennifer heard about all of this, she and a few friends decided to chip in and give him a big tip to help his cause.
Other people in the community caught on and donations starting rolling in.
Once his Venmo information was posted, people kept donating so much that Larry had more than he needed to fix his swamp cooler.
That’s when Larry decided to pay it forward.
He told ABC4,
“I was just trying to get them to donate to the food banks or toys for tots, instead of giving me money.”
Since Larry got all the money he needed to make his repairs, he no longer had to make deliveries.
The story just goes to show how something small could mean so much.
Jennifer told ABC4,
“It may seem so small, it may seem like it couldn’t amount to much, but you just never know when it could cause a snowball effect, a huge chain reaction, it could really make someone’s day, their life, it could be the positive that they need.”
It’s amazing to think about what could be accomplished if more people would just take action and do kind deeds.