Emotional Video of Woman Giving $1,300 to Veteran Goes Viral

This one-of-a-kind, beautiful story comes to us from New Hampshire, where a pawn shop worker saw a need and took care of it big time.

A 91-year-old military veteran named Donald stopped into U.S. Gold & Pawn in Manchester, N.H. recently to sell some items.

Donald was pawning his wife’s jewelry to help pay for a rent increase at their home. He had no idea what would happen next.

Jenelle Marie — a worker at the pawn shop who insists that she normally doesn’t pry into her clients’ reasons for pawning things — felt this time, it was different.

She couldn’t help but ask Donald why he’d need to pawn his wife’s jewelry. “I asked, ‘Is everything okay? I don’t understand. Why do you need this much money?’'” she says.

Donald told her that his wife has health issues, and that their landlord had increased their rent, so they’re struggling to make ends meet.

With no family to help — Donald and his wife of 60-plus years have outlived any family members — they’re riding solo in their journey.

Jenelle Marie decided that she needed to speak with the owner of the pawn shop to see if there was anything else that could be done.

The owner of the shop was also touched by the story after hearing what Donald and his wife are going through — so, he told Marie to knock the interest off of the amount that Donald owed.

That inspired Marie to do even more for the elderly man, a military veteran. Marie’s husband is the manager of the pawn shop, and together, they devised a plan.

The two started a GoFundMe for Donald that was written so beautifully, it needs to be shared:

“He takes care of her around the clock and his landlord is raising their rent and he is falling behind terribly with all of his bills. He’s deathly afraid he’s going to be displaced and that they are going to make his wife go to a home. I’m currently looking to find him a new place to rent that is within his budget, but I was hoping I could fundraise some money to lessen his load of financial stress.”

The plea for help worked. Marie and her family and friends raised $1,300 dollars for Donald and presented it to him, capturing the gesture on video.

But the story doesn’t end there.

When Marie later shared the video of the touching moment to TikTok, it went viral, generating at least 14 million views and 1.8 million likes.

Marie called Donald and asked him to stop by the pawn shop so she could share the happy news with him, that strangers had stepped up to give to his cause after hearing his story.

At time of publishing this story, the GoFundMe has reached nearly $450,000 and the pawn shop workers have connected Donald with a trust fund lawyer and are speaking with his landlord, as well. They have kind of adopted Donald and his wife to give them a necessary boost in a time of great need.

“Thousands of people donated, strangers all around the world, and it’s just really beautiful,” Marie tells People.” I hope that this can inspire someone to maybe do something nice for someone who may need it because you never know what can come from it. I also hope that this could bring some awareness, too, for struggling veterans.”

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