Elderly pizza lady receives $390k tip after falling during delivery
Barbara Gillespie was completing a typical Friday night pizza delivery when things took an unexpected turn.
The 72 year old had just made her way up a home’s front veranda stairs, arms laden with her pizza boxes, when she stumbled and fell on to a small white chair.
The family, whose security camera captured the entire tumble, came outside to see what had happened as the elderly driver was picking herself up from the ground.
On shaky legs, Barbara apologised again and again for what had become of the family’s food, telling them that she’d “ruined” it. But the family - otherwise known as the Keighrons - were only concerned about her.
“I opened the door and there she is, just laying on the ground trying to get up,” Kevin Keighron said on Good Morning America. “She was more worried about the food than anything else. And I was like, ‘I don't care about the food. I care about you’.”
Kevin and his wife, Lacey, described Barbara as being “the sweetest”, and after the incident - which occurred in early February - the pair decided to set up a GoFundMe to give Barbara a “tip” for her hard work.
“We would like to bless her by bringing by a ‘tip’ to help her with anything she may need,” Kevin said. “She is an older woman who fell and only cared about the food she dropped.
“Let’s show her some kindness and take off some of this burden that our economy is causing the older generations especially!”
More than 14,000 people donated, and the fundraiser achieved a whopping $390,000.
“We thought we would get her a bigger tip and bring it to her. We never expected to get as much as we did,” Kevin said of their successful campaign. “We were just so excited and thrilled to be able to tell her the next day.”
And when taking the surprise to Barbara, Kevin - Lacey, and two of their children - decided to make the grand reveal at her work. They later shared footage of the reunion to their TikTok account.
They have since shared that with the extra funds, Barbara was able to put in her two-week notice and finally enjoy her well-deserved retirement.
Barbara said that the generosity of everyone involved was overwhelming, and admitted she was close to giving up on people because some of them can be “so mean.”
“And here we got loving, caring people. They care about someone else” she declared, seemingly delighted to have had her mind so thoroughly changed, “about an elderly woman.”
Images: TikTok