At 81, He Works 14-Hour Days to Pay His Wife’s Medical Bills — Then Strangers Step In

An elderly Texas man has gone viral after he was filmed struggling to carry heavy bags up a flight of stairs as part of his job to pay the medical bills while his wife battles cancer — before kind strangers helped raise nearly $250K.

Don Johnson was seen returning luggage Erin Howell lost from a recent flight, catching the Dallas-Fort Worth area resident by surprise when she noticed the 81-year-old delivery man, according to heartbreaking home security footage.

“The other day, my door cam caught an 81-year-old man slowly and painstakingly carrying my heavy luggage that had been lost on a recent flight up a steep flight of stairs. He looked absolutely exhausted, and his steps were heavy with effort,” Howell wrote on GoFundMe. “It completely broke my heart to see a man of his age doing such intense, grueling physical labor.

“The reality is that he isn’t working by choice; he is working for survival,” Howell added.

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Johnson has been working as an independent contractor delivering the luggage to rightful owners’ homes for three years after his wife, Josephine, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.