Working in the delivery service is no easy task. Whenever you order food, an Amazon package or get something mailed to you, there’s a person on the other end who has to work extra hard to make sure it gets to you safe and sound.
Weber County resident Jennifer Weiss met one such delivery worker, though his line of work wasn’t the only thing that grasped her attention.
Stepping up to her front door, the delivery man seemed to struggle to make it up the steps a bit. Turns out, delivering Jennifer’s order was a rather elderly delivery man by the name of Larry.
Her reaction was probably what all of us would have felt in her position. A mix of surprise, being impressed, and a substantial amount of pity. Not the patronizing sort of pity, of course. I mean pity felt in good faith.
Just who is this man, and why is he working this kind of job at his age?
Even more so, he took incredible care of the packages in spite of his troubles with just walking around. Jennifer knew she couldn’t just let him drop the order by and be done with it.
Sometimes, perhaps even rarely, we see things that make us either ignore it and move on, or take a closer look and do something about it. This was definitely one of those moments, and Jennifer fortunately did the latter.
Weiss wasn’t hesitant to be transparent and honest about her thought process.
“It made me kind of feel guilty, to have someone else deliver stuff, just cuz’ I didn’t want to go to the store,”
We may not talk about it much, but delivery workers are probably next in line to health workers when it comes to risks taken during a pandemic. At least the reminder that Weiss got was a gentle one.
Jennifer then couldn’t stop having little worries and anxieties over Larry’s safety. As one does.
“Who he was and what his situation was, why he was doing deliveries, if he was going to continue doing deliveries when snow starts falling when stairs and driveways are icy.”
The senior citizen and delivery worker needed the extra funds for some of his living expenses.
“I had a stroke in June, so I was just making some extra money cuz’ our swamp cooler blew off our roof, we have a big hole, I got it taped up, needed some extra money to fix that.”
Nonetheless, a line of work like this is no place for someone Larry’s age. It’s unfortunate that elderly members of society are still vulnerable to major inconveniences like this, and even more so that they can find little accommodation or help when they need it.
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Jennifer didn’t want Larry to deal with those same circumstances.
So she did what any young person in this age would do, use social media to find him and make other people aware of him.
ACT OF KINDNESS: When Jennifer Weiss saw a delivery man struggling to get up her steps, she knew she wanted to help. Larry, a veteran, had recently suffered a stroke and took the job to pay for home repairs. Weiss took to social media to help raise money https://t.co/dzzAIHsO5L pic.twitter.com/ikmvNc1Lxr
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 24, 2020
She took to Facebook and wrote a post, asking if anyone in Ogden knew him. It didn’t take too long for the responses to start rolling in, and when she’d located him and gotten enough information about him, she posted his Venmo information and got donations for him one after the other.
Jennifer Weiss saw a delivery man, Larry, struggling to get up her steps. https://t.co/OVpcP8avQp pic.twitter.com/xFSbcJt9Ee
— ABC30 Fresno (@ABC30) November 24, 2020
A much-needed happy ending, just how it should be.
Larry received more than enough funds to fix his roof, and quit his delivery job. Exactly what Jennifer wanted. In fact, the donations came in such large quantity that Larry even insisted they donate to other local charities who need it more than him.
Nevertheless, knowing Larry has a roof to sleep under and doesn’t have to do demanding physical labor puts our worries to rest.
Larry’s little story is worth a watch in its entirety. A little broadcast of the story can be watched below, and do share the article when you’re done watching!
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