When you think of retirement, you usually expect it to be your last big adventure. No more working, your time is your own. You’ve earned it after all, having worked for years. But these days, retirement doesn’t always go as planned. And sometimes, the money you think you’ll have afterwards, isn’t what you end up with.
So for some, retirement becomes a tight-rope walk between not enough money and just enough to get by. For one 80-year-old man, when his rent was increased $400, he had no choice but to come out of retirement and return to work. The janitor, known only as “Mr. James,” went back to Callisburg High School in Texas and continued working.
Mr. James works as a janitor at the high school. Photo from GoFundMe
But the students there couldn’t stand to see their favorite person be in such a hard position in life. When they realized how much his rent was increased and that Mr. James had no choice but to keep working, a group of students banded together and started a GoFundMe. They named it: ‘Getting Mr. James Out Of This School’.
Greyson Thurman, one of the students behind the fundraiser, wrote: “Hey guys I’m having a fundraiser for our janitor who is struggling to pay his rent,” the campaign read. “He had to leave retirement to continue to pay his rent that was raised. Just a little will change his life!!” The young man also shared a post on TikTok, showing Mr. James cleaning the hallway.
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He added the GoFundMe link, and wrote, “My classmates and I hate seeing Mr. James here, no one his age should have to be cleaning our messes up to continue to live.” Thurman told local news outlet KXII that his nearly 2,000 followers on TikTok was”enough to get the word out.” Since the fund has started, more than $270,0000 has been raised for Mr. James.
Nobody deserves to work their whole life. They deserve to enjoy everything,” Thurman said.
High school senior Banner Tidwell agreed, saying, “It’s just so sad seeing an 80-year-old man having to do things an 80-year-old shouldn’t have to do. “When we told him, he was kind of like, ‘Dang, that’s alright!’ ” another student, Marti Yousko, said of the janitor’s reaction. James is “very appreciative of what these students have done,” he hopes to keep his life private, principal Jason Hooper added. “He doesn’t want any part of the spotlight.”
“It’s crazy to see something that we knew people would have wanted to help,” Yousko said. “But we didn’t know it would blow up. The principal couldn’t hide the pride he felt for his students’ action. “It’s just amazing,” Hooper said. “You know of the need that was met because of three kind kids, but of all of our students who have pitched in to help that need.” View the heartwarming story below.
