We are far more reliant on deliveries and online shopping than ever before.

The pandemic has really caused a shift in how we purchase things such as groceries, essential items, and basically everything else we want or need.

This means our society is more reliant on delivery drivers than ever before. They provide a vital function in our communities.

Delivery drivers are essential workers.

Society would not be able to function without delivery drivers, at least not during a pandemic. People performing in such a role cannot work from home and stay safely indoors, even if they are in a vulnerable group.

This woman never expected to see what she did.

Jennifer Weiss is a woman who lives in Weber County and like many of us, she began shopping online with the onset of the global pandemic. One day, she ordered a bunch of groceries. When those groceries were being delivered, however, she saw something she never expected to.

Jennifer watched the delivery person through her doorbell camera. He was an elderly man and seemed to be really struggling to get up the steps while carrying Jennifer’s packages.

Jennifer says she felt “kind of guilty.”

Seeing the man struggling to bring Jennifer the food she ordered had a big impact on her.

“It made me kind of feel guilty, to have someone else deliver stuff, just cuz’ I didn’t want to go to the store.”

Jennifer became concerned about how this man would hold up working in such a role during the winter as well.

“Who he was and what his situation was, why he was doing deliveries, if he was going to continue doing deliveries when snow starts falling when stairs and driveways are icy,” she continued.

She had to do something.

Sometimes when people see someone struggling they have to do something. If it’s within their power to help that person’s situation, then that’s exactly what they will do. Jennifer is just such a person.

“I had a few friends who said he shouldn’t have to be delivering, what if we all pitched in and gave him a big tip,” said Weiss.

Jennifer began scouring social media to see if she could find out who the man is.

Jennifer sends out a message on social media.

Jennifer took to a local Facebook page “You know your from Ogden if” and wrote the following post:

“Ogden, i need your help identifying this man! He did nothing wrong- in fact, just the opposite. He delivered a fairly small grocery order of mine from Walmart today and had a difficult time getting up and down my stairs (I only know this from watching my doorbell camera afterwards). He took such care with all of my bags even though he clearly had some mobility difficulties. My heart broke seeing this.”

Sure enough, one of the man’s relatives discovered the post. They let everyone know that the man’s name is Larry, and he is a veteran.

Why did Larry become a delivery driver?

Unfortunately, it was revealed that Larry had suffered a stroke recently. He had taken the job as a delivery driver to make some extra money to fix his roof.

“I had a stroke in June, so I was just making some extra money cuz’ our swamp cooler blew off our roof, we have a big hole, I got it taped up, needed some extra money to fix that,” Larry said.

The community donates enough money for Larry to fix his roof (and then some!)

Weiss posted Larry’s Venmo information to Facebook so people could donate money to him. The donations poured in and soon enough Larry had more than enough money to fix his roof. He certainly does not need to make deliveries anymore and that’s all thanks to Jennifer and her kind actions.

“It just blew up like crazy, there’s so many nice people around here,” Larry said.

Eventually, Larry had to tell the nice people of his community to stop giving him money. He had enough and so he encouraged everyone to donate to other charitable causes instead.

“And I was just trying to get them to donate to the food banks and toys for tots or something, instead of giving me money,” Larry said.

This story is another example of how one person’s kind actions can have tremendous benefits for good people who could use a little help.

“It may seem so small, it may seem like it couldn’t amount to much, but you just never know when it could cause a snowball effect, a huge chain reaction, it could really make someone’s day, their life, it could be the positive that they need,” Weiss said.

You can learn more about this touching story in the video below.

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Source: ABC13/Inside Edition