Viral TikTok post leads to $400K raised to help 90-year-old veteran care for his ailing wife

A heartwarming video of a 90-year-old Air Force veteran named Donald has gone viral after he tried to sell his jewelry at a pawn shop in Manchester to avoid eviction and take care of his wife, who has dementia. People have since donated close to $400,000.

TikTokker Jenelle Marie, who works at the US Pawn Shop in Manchester, helped out by starting a GoFundMe for Donald. After a month, she raised $1,300 from 25 people. Jenelle secretly put the cash in an envelope and gave it to Donald at the store, capturing his reaction on video. When she posted it on TikTok, it went viral, pulling in over 10 million views. 

Donald tells Jenelle in the video he can’t take the cash from her. But she insists, saying it’s an early birthday present.

“You are an angel in disguise,” Donald, who turns 91 in August, told Jenelle. “I don’t know what to say. You meet very few very good people in life.”

Jenelle posted a second video presenting Donald with an oversized $250,000 check to represent all the donations that rolled in. 

“This is the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life,” Donald said in the video.

Since then, about 1,000 different strangers on the internet have donated around $400,000.

Jenelle decided to help out after the owner of the pawn shop opted not to charge Donald interest.

“I thought that was super nice,” she said in a recent interview. “As a small business, that’s how they would make their money.” 

She took it a step further with the GoFundMe

“They never had kids and they don’t have any family left. He is the sweetest old man you could ever meet and loves his wife dearly,” Jenelle wrote on the GoFundMe page. “He takes care of her around the clock and his landlord is raising their rent and he is falling behind terribly with all of his bills. He’s deathly afraid he’s going to be displaced and that they are going to make his wife go to a home.” 

Jenelle is also trying to find him a new place for Donald to live, where the rent is more affordable. 

“This whole thing just went viral,” Jenelle said in an interview. “Now he’s looking good.”

Jenelle thanked people for the outpouring of love and urged more people to support veterans.

“They shouldn’t be having to struggle,” she said.