A family has raised more than $250,000 for a Domino’s delivery driver who was injured while delivering the family’s food earlier this month.
Barbara Gillespie‘s fall was caught on the family’s home security video and has since gone viral, being viewed over 3 million times on TikTok. The 72-year-old can be seen struggling after the fall and apologizing for dropping the food while a member of the household rushes to help.
Kevin Keighron and his wife, Lacey Klein, of South Carolina, set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to leave an extra “tip” for Gillespie. The couple told Good Morning America they watched both their fathers work right up until their deaths and don’t want the same for Gillespie, whom they said they now consider family.
Over 14,000 people have since donated, raising more than $250,000 for Gillespie, who has worked for Domino’s for five and a half years.
Gillespie 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,” she told Good Morning America. “And here we got people — loving, caring people. They care about someone else … about an elderly woman.”
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.
Gillespie told ABC News that thanks to strangers’ donations, she plans to retire and submitted her two-week notice to Domino’s on February 8.
“We want her to retire right now,” said Lacey. “Stop working and enjoy her grandkids, her kids, her great-great-grandkids. Go on a cruise, take a vacation, whatever she wants to do.”