Usually dropping someone’s food leads to a lot of hungry, and angry, people. But not for one Domino’s pizza delivery driver. Instead, the 72-year-old woman got the shock of her life. And it all started with a TikTok video with more than 3 million views.
Barbara Gillespie was delivering food to the Keighron family, when she fell on their porch, dropping the food as she hit the ground. “I open the door and there she is just laying on the ground trying to get up,” Kevin Keighron said.
“She was more worried about [the food] than anything else. And I was like, ‘I don’t care about the food. I care about you,'” he said. Kevin, along with his wife Lacey Klein, of South Carolina, tipped the shaken woman, and made sure she was OK before leaving. But the couple knew they couldn’t just move on after this.
@momofthe5ks Our dominos delivery driver fell on our front porch today and my heart just hurts for her. She’s clearly having a hard time. She was so worried about our food but all we cared about was that she was okay. I’m so sad for her @dominos #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #dominospizza ♬ original sound – Lacey Keighron
So, they decided to create a GoFundMe, and share the video on TikTok. More than 14,000 people have now added to the couple’s ‘tip’ for the delivery woman. The total: More than $250,000. “We thought we would get her a bigger tip and bring it to her. We never expected to get as much as we did,” Lacey said.
“We were just so excited and thrilled [to] be able to tell her the next day,” she said. Gillespie, who has worked for Domino’s for five and a half years, said she is in awe of the amount of money donated to her by strangers.
I almost gave up on people because so many people out there today are so mean,” said Gillespie. “And here we got people loving, caring people. They care about someone else, about an elderly woman.”
Domino’s said in a statement they’re grateful that “caring customers were able to help her transform her life so meaningfully. Barbara is a beloved member of our family and she was recently honored with Team Member of the Year for 2022 within the company. She is also a favorite of our customers and always has a smile on her face. We are very happy for her.”
Barbara Gillespie, center, was delivering food to the Keighron family, when she fell on their porch. Here she poses with Lacey Klein, left, and her husband, Kevin Keighron, right, along with their two children. Photo from YouTube
Gillespie told reporters thanks to everyone who donated, she put in her two-week notice and plans to retire. While the community showed up to support Gillespie, her situation sparked a larger conversation about many Americans having to work past the retirement age to afford the cost of living.
Kevin and Lacey told Good Morning America that they had seen how hard it was for their own fathers, who had worked up until their deaths, unable to retire. They didn’t want to see that happen to Gillespie.
“We want her to retire right now,” Lacey said. “Stop working and enjoy her grandkids, her kids, her great-great-grandkids. Go on a cruise, take a vacation, whatever she wants to do, but not do something that’s physically not good for her.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans are retiring at much older ages than before. In 1991, the poll states, the average retirement age was 57; as of 2022, 61. Non-retirees’ target retirement age has also increased from 60 in 1995 to 66 in 2022.
“The economic downturn, shifting perceptions of retirement, increased workplace flexibility, and the aging of the ‘baby boom’ generation are all contributing to people working longer,” the U.S. Department of Labor reported. And for this family, that wasn’t the outcome they wanted for Gillespie. Watch below to see how their simple video helped change her life.
Sources: GMA | MyPositiveOutlooks
