Rose and David Griest have lived long enough to know that you don’t judge a book by its cover.
When the 100-year-old Army veteran drove his frail 89-year-old wife to her doctors’ appointment last month, they didn’t realize they’d need the help of bystanders. But the trip was long and Rose needed to use the bathroom, so she asked David to stop at the nearest gas station.
When they came out, Rose had trouble getting herself back into the couple’s van. David, who relies on a walker and was feeling weak as well, couldn’t do much to help her.
Luckily, three young men inside the gas station had noticed the elderly couple and realized they might need help and so kept an eye on them. When Rose and David began to struggle to load her into the car, the men jumped into action and ran straight out to help.
The three tall men with baggy sweatpants walking over to the vehicle of an elderly couple caught the attention of a police officer in the area, Kanesha Carnegie, who made her way over.
But before she could get there, it became clear that the situation was in hand and was a show of good citizenship rather than anything that required her intervention.
Carnegie, an officer with the Levy County Sheriff’s Office in Bronson, Florida, later told Yahoo! she also recognized the men “from the neighborhood, and wanted them to have that moment to show who they really are.”
She told MSN:
“I went over to assist them, and when I got there … they kind of had it under control. I thought at the time they looked really beautiful and that was a nice view to see. I stepped back and I just videoed them.”
The young men carefully and gently helped get Rose into her seat, which was no easy feat since the couple’s van required her to climb nearly a foot up into the vehicle.
The men didn’t want to handle her frail body too much at first, but her exhaustion got the best of her and she stumbled.
That’s when the men realized they were going to have to do some more heavy lifting and pick her up.
And they did, with extreme care and patience.
David stood by dutifully to support his wife and offer whatever help he could give while officer Officer Carnegie got out her phone and recorded the moment.
When the men finished their job, David can be heard saying “Thank you so much, fellas. I’m 100 years old.” The young rappers were inspired by his ability to still get out of the house and get things done at that age: “You’re 100 years old? That’s a good life,” one of the young men replied.
When Carnegie uploaded the sweet video to her Facebook page, it quickly got a whopping 5 million views! It’s now been viewed over 5.5 million times, shared 95k times, and has over 18k comments! She captioned it by saying “‘MLK’ The dream STILL lives on…”
Commenters were, of course, moved by the display.
But, of course, the trolls came out to play as well, with comments that were entirely beside the point, though they were quickly called out for choosing the wrong time to criticize the good samaritans.
Even David and Rose got their share of Facebook criticism for still being on the road at that age.
Despite a bit of backlash, which is to be expected from anything that draws that much attention, most people saw what was most beautiful about the moment.
And warm wishes came in from around the world.
Carnegie has obviously been contacted by multiple news outlets that want to cover the story and she’s spoken with Yahoo and Inside Edition. Many of the commenters have lobbying for her to be featured on The Ellen Show as well.
You can see the heartwarming video below.
The three Orlando-based rappers – Joc Koe Stoe, Marty, and Freddy G. – told the local Fox station that they were inside buying snacks when they saw their help was needed. “I kept thinking, ‘She could have been my grandmother,’” said Marty.
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