An 81-year-old Texas man has drawn widespread attention after video showed him laboring up a steep staircase with heavy luggage. He was working to help cover medical expenses while his wife undergoes cancer treatment, but a stranger’s fundraiser has since brought the couple nearly $250,000.
Don Johnson was delivering luggage that Erin Howell had lost during a recent flight when she happened to see him on her home security camera. The Dallas-Fort Worth-area resident was stunned to realize the exhausted delivery worker carrying her bags was 81 years old.
“My doorbell camera recently captured an 81-year-old man slowly carrying my heavy luggage up a steep flight of stairs after it was lost on a flight,” Howell wrote on GoFundMe. “He looked completely worn out, and every step appeared to require enormous effort. Seeing someone his age doing such physically demanding work broke my heart.”
Howell said Johnson was not working because he wanted to, but because he had no other choice. “He is working to survive,” she wrote.
Johnson has spent the past three years as an independent contractor returning misplaced luggage to customers’ homes. He took the job after his wife, Josephine, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
The couple has been married for 57 years and moved into their daughter’s home, a change that offered some support as Josephine faced the disease.
Even so, mounting medical bills and prescription expenses placed the family under growing financial strain. Johnson eventually decided he had to return to work to make ends meet.
“It’s the only job that will hire me,” Johnson told Howell.
“With groceries, bills and everything else becoming more expensive, we were barely getting by,” Johnson told NBC5 Dallas-Fort Worth. He said he had applied to Amazon, Walmart and other employers, but either the timing was wrong or the companies chose not to hire him.
Despite his age, Johnson routinely worked shifts lasting as long as 14 hours in an effort to bring in additional money.
The job also required him to drive hundreds of miles each day. His car has accumulated more than 200,000 miles and developed serious mechanical problems as a result.
“At an age when he should be resting and spending every precious moment with his wife, he is instead driving long distances and lifting heavy bags simply to keep her alive and cared for,” Howell said.
After watching the footage again, Howell decided to turn her concern into action. She launched a fundraiser for Johnson and his wife, quickly rallying support from people moved by his situation.
“He should not have to shoulder this devastating financial and physical burden alone,” Howell said. “Every dollar raised will go directly toward helping them get through this crisis.”
The GoFundMe campaign, launched Sept. 2 with a $300,000 target, has collected more than $244,000.
Johnson said he was deeply thankful for Howell’s generosity and intended to use the donations to ease the couple’s financial pressure.
“I think I’ll be able to stop working, and that’s incredible,” he told KDFW. “We’re not completely past this yet, but we’re getting there very quickly.”
The outpouring of donations and supportive messages has also given Josephine renewed hope as she continues her cancer battle.
“I can face it now. I think that’s the biggest difference,” Josephine said. “People have reached out, left comments and told us they’re praying for us. It’s a joyful feeling.”
