One man from Buffalo, New York, is still alive today, likely thanks to a good Samaritan who took him in amid a deadly winter storm pummeling the northern state.
Mother-of-three Sha’Kyra Aughtry and her boyfriend saw Joe White calling out for help as he was being “blown up and down the street.” The couple took it upon themselves to take the elderly man into their home to tend to his wounds, feed him, and give him a warm place to sleep.
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In a Facebook Live video posted Christmas Day, Aughtry said, “I’ve had this man since 6:37 yesterday morning,” later adding she believed White was suffering from gangrene and could lose his fingers.
The elderly man’s hands were so frozen, Aughtry said she had to use a blow-dryer to warm them enough to remove the bags he had been carrying with him.
As it turns out, it’s a good thing Aughtry took White into her home, because it took undoubtedly overwhelmed police officers about nine hours to respond to the good Samaritan’s request for help.
“They keep telling me I was on a list, but I don’t want to be on no list,” she said on Facebook. “This man is not about to die over here!”
White was thankfully transported to a Buffalo-area hospital two days later. And, according to one of White’s coworkers, Chris Dearing, the elderly man is mentally disabled and “did not understand the true severity of the storm.”
Dearing started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for White.
“During the December blizzard of 2022, my friend and North Park employee of [about] 40 years, Joe White, suffered severe frostbite on his hands,” he wrote in the campaign’s description. “[D]isoriented and crying out for help, he miraculously found himself at the doorstep of Sha’Kyra Rain Aughtry — a total stranger — who put her Christmas plans aside and tended to his wounds the best she could.”
Initially, White’s coworker asked for $20,000 to pay White’s medical bills. At the time this story was published, the campaign had raised more than $56,000.
Dearing also launched a GoFundMe page for Aughtry, raising an incredible $105,532.
“Sha’Kyra did all of this without any thought of reward, but she deserves one, and so does her family,” he wrote. “She’s a hard-working young mother, and I want to show her at least a fraction of the support she gave my friend Joe.”
What an incredible story of sacrifice and selfless love for humanity. Please pray for White, his loved ones, and for Aughtry and her family.
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