Gabriella Ferlita
Earlier this month, a TikToker rallied his followers together to raise over $100,000 (£82,000) for an elderly Walmart employee to finally retire - and people moved by her story have now donated a further $80,000 (£66,000), which means she can finally quit work.
However, she's not leaving Walmart quite yet - and has a touching reason for sticking around.
The elderly woman captured the hearts of the internet for working hard at the grocery store to make ends meet instead of kicking back and enjoying her golden years.
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Content creator Devan Bonagura (@dbon973_) shared a 15-second video of the woman, named Nola, on 3 November and told fellow TikTokers that he 'felt bad’ for her.
Soon, donations began rolling in for the 81-year-old, and the video creator approached Nola when the GoFundMe reached around $100,000 (£82,600) at the time.
One day after he posted the original video, the TikTok star found Nola and handed over the money which he raised in just 24 hours.
He told the store employee: “They saw that you’re a very hard worker, obviously.
“We are all super proud of you, and we wanted to offer you the $110,000 that has been raised for you.”
To this, she expressed that her mortgage would go ‘way down’, but it wouldn’t be enough for her to stop working at the role she’s had for twenty years.
“I'd accept it," she told Bonagura of the donations, “but I'd still have to work until I get the other $60,000 paid off on the house.”
Nola also said that she would retire as soon as she earns enough money to pay it off: “That’s what’s holding me at work — the house.”
The average hourly wage is around $17 (£14) at Walmart, which means she would have been looking at a good few more years of working in her golden years if she was trying to pay her mortgage off completely.
Well, in a heart-warming update on 13 November, Devan filmed himself asking Nola some questions after the GoFundMe reached $181,000 (£149,000) - which would be more than enough to cover her mortgage, according to Nola.
While Nola explained that she will eventually ‘completely retire’, she still won’t quit yet, despite the GoFundMe sitting at $186,653 ( £153,977) at the time of writing - and it’s down to the goodness of her own heart.
“I’m going to completely retire the first of the year, [but] I’m gonna help [Walmart] out for the holidays,” Nola admitted.
“It’ll be good to stay home,” she explained of her eventual retirement.
“When I leave Walmart, I’m going to miss my customers because they look for me every day,” she added.
We're so happy that Nola can finally get the retirement that she deserves.