Butch Marion is an 82-year-old Navy veteran who had to work at a Walmart in Maryland to pay his bills. He had been working hard since he was 11 years old, and he never had a chance to retire. But thanks to the kindness of strangers, he finally got to quit his job and enjoy his life.
Butch Marion said goodbye to his job on Wednesday after online donors raised more than $108,000 for him on GoFundMe, according to FOX affiliate WTTG.
The man behind the fundraiser was Rory McCarty, a 53-year-old who met Marion at the Walmart store. He got Marion’s permission and posted a video about him on TikTok, asking people to help him retire.
“I’m just so excited for him,” McCarty, 53, told the outlet.
He was inspired by another TikTok video, where a woman named Elizabeth “Liz” Rizzo from Arizona raised over $135,000 for another 82-year-old Walmart worker named Carmen Kelly, as reported by ABC affiliate WABC.
He told Marion, “Imagine someone raising that kind of money for you!” And that’s exactly what happened. TikTok users responded to his video and donated to the GoFundMe campaign.
In another video, McCarty showed Marion how much money he had raised for him. Marion was shocked and grateful, asking, “This is real?” and “How did I get so lucky?” He said he worked at Walmart to make ends meet, and he had been working since he was 11 years old.
When asked what he would do with the money, the man said he would use the money to visit his children, fix his house, and “enjoy” the rest of his life.
The fundraiser reached $100,000 in just two days, according to WTTG. Marion said it was a Christmas miracle. On Wednesday, he left his job for the last time, and McCarty was there to give him a check and a hug.
“I feel like a new man,” the former retail worker told WTTG. “This is just unreal.”
Marion and McCarty became friends, even though they were strangers a month ago. They also met with Rizzo, the woman who inspired McCarty to start the fundraiser. McCarty shared a video of them having dinner together, and he thanked Rizzo for her idea.
He told Marion, “I saw her video, and that’s what made me do your video. So without her, none of this would be possible.”
On Thursday, McCarty posted some photos of Marion’s last day at Walmart, and he also shared a message from Marion to the donors. “Butch wanted me to thank every one of you out there who contributed to this miracle that you gave him,” McCarty wrote. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, he said.”