An avid fan of TikTok used the social media platform to help an elderly Maryland widower and U.S. Navy veteran retire earlier than he expected.
WTTG-TV reports Butch Marion, 82, officially retired from his job at Walmart on Wednesday after he received a check for $108,000 for being kind at the right place, and at the right time.
“I feel like a new man,” Marion told the outlet. “This is just unreal.”
Rory McCarty is the owner of a bug exterminator business called Bug Boys. He told WTTG he has found some success using TikTok for his business. His Instagram bio reads “Jesus, family, Bug Boys owner, Photographer.”
A few weeks ago, McCarty needed some batteries, so he went to the Cumberland, Maryland Walmart location. While he was there, he met Marion who was a cashier at the store.
McCarty used his phone to video Marion checking his items out at the register. He remembered seeing a video on TikTok explaining how a woman had started a GoFundMe page for another Walmart employee to help her retire.
In that other instance, Elizabeth “Liz” Rizzo, of Arizona, helped raise over $135,000 for the employee, identified by WABC-TV as Carmen Kelly.
“I just wanted to put something in motion and the Lord did the rest,” McCarty told WTTG.
With Marion’s approval, McCarty posted the video to the platform and it garnered more than 3 million views. He also set up a GoFundMe page for Marion and in two days, the $100,000 goal was met.
As Marion walked out of the store as a Walmart employee for the last time, McCarty presented him with the check.
“I love you, man,” McCarty told Marion.
“I love you too,” Marion said.
(Photo credit: Rory McCarty)
According to WTTG, Marion worked about 30 hours a week. He retired from General Motors several years ago to help take care of his ex-wife’s husband before he passed away. He then took care of his ex-wife and returned to work after she died.
Marion told the outlet that he will use the money to pay off bills, allow him to relax, and maybe do a little fishing. He will also use some of the money to travel to Florida for a three-week trip to visit his daughters and grandchildren whom he hasn’t hugged in years.
Marion said he feels like a “bird out of a cage.”
And McCarty told the Fox News station in a live interview that he wanted to “thank my Lord Jesus Christ” for putting it on his heart to bless Marion in this way.
The two men have developed a friendship, spending time riding ATVs and enjoying meals together. Their friendship, McCarty said, will continue.
“Just never dreamed this would happen,” McCarty told WTTG. “I’m just so excited for him.”
McCarty also shared photos of Marion’s final day at Walmart on TikTok with a message for the people who helped him, according to People.
“Butch wanted me to thank every one of you out there that contributed to this miracle that you gave him,” McCarty wrote in the video’s caption. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, he said.”
He also shared a photo of him and Marion with the $108,000 check on his Instagram page.
“Seventeen years ago I was born again. If you heard that testimony that will curl the hair on your arm. That’s why this happened the way it did. The greatest commandment in The Bible is to love your Lord God with all your heart soul mind and strength. And the 2nd greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And Butch was my neighbor even though I’ve never met him before. It says in Philippians. Look not on your own interest but the interest of others. And in Galatians, it says to carry each other’s burdens and by doing so you will fulfill the law of Christ,” McCarty said in an email to CBN News.
“If we all did that. Truly did that every day, look for others in need. Pray about it before. Hit your knees so that the Lord will make a way and open a window and a door. An opportunity to bless someone what a world we would be living in,” he wrote.
(Photo credit: Rory McCarty)
Marion is now the third Walmart employee to have received life-changing donations from social media users in recent months in what is quickly becoming a trend—it even has its own hashtag: #TikTokWalmartRetiree, according to Fortune.
As CBN News reported in late November, the first TikTok video posted by Devan Bonagura went viral, raising nearly $200,000 for an elderly Walmart employee so she could retire.
In the video posted to TikTok by Bonagura, the elderly woman looked beat down and exhausted after a day’s work at the retail giant. She struggles to catch her breath on her break. Bonagura helplessly watches on.
“I saw her limping and it looked like she was having some trouble walking,” he said in a YouTube video. “I felt for her. I felt really bad. And I was wondering at her age, 81 years old like ‘why should she have to work at Walmart?’ I felt horrible for her and she reminded me of my grandma.”
Bonagura posted the video to the social media platform to bring awareness to the struggles the elderly face.
“Life shouldn’t b this hard,” reads the text on his video.
Bonagura initially started a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 for Nola. But within 24 hours, more than $100,000 was raised. “It’s absolutely insane and it just goes to show how powerful social media is,” he explained.
His acts of kindness have not stopped there. He had made it his mission to “bless others.” In one video, he tipped a Johnny Rockets waitress $500 after ordering water.
“We wanted to bless you,” he said.
Bonagura has also made it his goal to help the homeless and to reward others for their honesty.
“This has put me in a position, because of all of you amazing people that watched and supported, that I can now go out and do video helping people,” he shared. “It would not have been possible without you guys and I thank you so much.”
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