Couple Sees Man Walk Daily, Take Action When They Realize What He’s Doing
By Timfly
After seeing an elderly man walking each day for the last several months, a curious Florida couple decided to find out what his daily trek was about. When they learned why he was taking this daily multi-mile route, they took action.
Nikki Norton (left), John Joyce (right)
In Pinellas Park, Florida, many people had become used to seeing 83-year-old John Joyce strolling up and down the sidewalks in their city, come rain or shine. Not many had stopped to talk to him about why he chose to walk so much, especially since he was always pushing heavy machinery. But Robert Norton had come to know John over the years as one of his longtime customers, enjoying the good job the elderly man did mowing his lawn.
John had a job to do, and he took it seriously. To be able to pay his bills, he mowed people’s lawns, never missing a day no matter what obstacles came his way. So when the transmission on his 1994 automobile died, he knew the only way he could ever afford to fix it was to keep on working, which meant he’d get to his lawns the only way he could — on foot.
According to the radio station Hot 96.7, John has pushed his lawnmower to each of his customer’s homes every day, several miles each way. Robert and his new bride Nikki Norton were one of his best customers, even more so after what they decided to do for John after learning he was without a way to get to work and pushing a lawnmower each step of the way.
The Nortons with John
The Nortons decided to start a GoFundMe page for John to help him financially in any way they could, with whatever donations people in the community contributed. To their complete astonishment, they raised $13,000 in just a few short weeks. They knew just what to do with the money too, which would ultimately leave everyone in tears — especially John.
In the midst of the fundraiser, the couple had fallen on their own emotionally hard times, when Robert’s mom died just days before their wedding. Despite their own grief, they knew that what they had to do for someone else was more important. They made arrangements with a used car dealer to buy a truck for John, and one good deed led to another. The car shop sold them a 2004 Nissan truck at the dealer’s cost, which left a surplus of donation money that they could use to help John in several other ways.
With the remaining funds, the Nortons paid for the car insurance, plates, and even a Home Depot gift card so John could buy a brand new lawnmower. On Monday, the couple presented this deserving man all these gifts provided by caring people in his community. John could barely hold back the tears with a full heart of gratitude for strangers that were watching out for him.
“People’s needs don’t arise when it’s convenient for you, they arise when they have needs. John’s needs didn’t come at a convenient time, but we needed to help him. I didn’t want him to have to wait,” Robert said. John didn’t wait either. Right after getting his new ride, he drove off the lot and straight to work, mowing lawns.
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