A Tennessee nurse has raised more than half a million dollars to help an elderly DoorDash driver retire after seeing him struggle to deliver her Starbucks order.
Brittany Smith, a nurse in Manchester, launched a GoFundMe page after her doorbell camera captured Richard Pulley, 78, struggling to climb the stairs as he slowly made his way to her front door earlier this week.
She later learned that Pulley had come out of retirement after his wife Brenda lost her job and that the couple had little to nothing after paying their monthly bills and medication costs.
By Saturday morning, donations to the 'Give Richard a Chance to Rest Again' fundraiser had surpassed $816,322.
'We appreciate every one of them,' Pulley told WSMV News. 'It's taking a lot of pressure off of us and making life livable once again.'
The touching tale began Tuesday when Smith learned that her daughter's father had arranged for Starbucks to be delivered to her front door - a gesture she said she was not happy about, according to The Independent.
'He often orders Starbucks for her, but we try to do it as more of a reward, and this was the third time he had ordered for her in the week,' Smith told the outlet.
But that one order may have been fate. When Smith clicked on the Ring doorbell app, she saw 'a little old man walking up the steps.'
In the brief clip lasting just 20 seconds, an elderly man in a plaid button-down shirt and khakis grips the handrail as he slowly climbs a small set of stairs and carefully sets the brown paper bag at the front door.
'This poor guy is struggling to get up my stairs to deliver my very capable daughter her Starbucks,' Smith told the outlet.
'My daughter's dad is a quadriplegic, so he often has things sent to the house because he can't physically go get them,' she added.
After watching the footage, Smith felt compelled to use social media to track down the man. She shared the moving video in an effort to learn his name.
'Help me find this precious man!' she wrote on Facebook, adding crying emojis. 'Why is he having to DoorDash? Help me find him.'
The internet worked its magic when a Facebook user recognized Pulley as the man who frequently delivered DoorDash orders to her office and passed along his name.
She tracked down his address, confirmed the car in the driveway matched her doorbell footage and showed up at his door with an unexpected $200 tip.
'Before he accepted the money, he wanted to make sure that I was going to be OK if he accepted that money from me,' Smith told The Independent.
The pair started talking, and Pulley revealed he came out of retirement to support his wife, who requires 'very expensive medication' costing thousands a year.
The couple work together and have been delivering through DoorDash for around a year with Brenda behind the wheel while her husband hops out to deliver.
'When you're past your mid-70s, there's not exactly a line of people waiting to hire you,' Brenda told WSMV.
Smith's footage quickly went viral and she was inundated with offers of help from well-wishers across the country leading her to set up the donation page.
Donations to the 'Give Richard a Chance to Rest Again' fundraiser had surpassed $816,322 by Saturday morning.
Nearly overnight, contributions skyrocketed, far exceeding her expectations. By the following night, more than 12,000 people had already donated.
Days later, Smith and her daughter met Pulley and his wife at a local restaurant to reveal the extent of the donations.
'Richard said he's not slept in two days because he can't quit watching the GoFundMe,' Smith added.
She shared a video on Facebook showing that strangers had also sent $1,900 to her personal CashApp and Venmo accounts, which she counted in front of the couple before giving it to them in an envelope.
'Don't show this on TV until I get to the bank,' Pulley joked.
But the couple were nothing short of stunned by the generosity, admitting that it was hard to believe complete strangers had come together to support them.
'I just can't believe that someone would be that caring to set this up for us,' Brenda told WSMV News, speaking of Smith.
'It's just really difficult to believe that there's that many people that are that generous to try and help us,' she added. 'People that don't even know us.'
Thanks to the donations, the longtime pair can now leave delivery work behind and finally live out the retirement they had once planned together.
Smith said that while the response was 'overwhelming,' she would 'do it all over again in a heartbeat.'
'I don't know,' she told WSMV. 'It's just, I love this man.'