An Australian social media influencer inspired strangers to donate more than $1.5 million — and rising — in three days to help Ed Bambas, 88, finally retire.
Positivity influencer Samuel Wiedenhofer launched the GoFundMe campaign on December 1 after sharing his interview with Bambas, a U.S. army veteran from Michigan currently working at a Meijer’s grocery store about 45 miles west of Detroit.
Ed Bambas Went Back to Work After Losing His Pension, Then His Wife & His Home
Bambas shared that he retired from General Motors in 1999 and lost his pension in 2012 when the company went bankrupt. He later lost his wife, Joan, in 2018 after a health battle that left them financially exhausted, he said.
“She was sick when I lost my pension,” he said. With tears in his eyes and a trembling voice he added, “The thing that hurt me the most was my wife was really sick, and when they took the pension they also took the health care coverage. … So I sold the house, sold the property I had, and we made it through.”
“My wife died seven years ago. Since then I’ve been trying to re-establish myself. I work five days a week, eight hours a day. … I don’t have enough income,” he said.
âIt wasn’t hard for me to do it because I knew I had to do it,â Bambas told WXYZ Detroit. “I’m fortunate God gave me a good enough body to be strong enough to stand there for eight, eight and a half hours a day.”
Asked what his dream is, Bambas told Wiedenhofer, “Live a little, of, somewhat, the life I was hoping for.”
The interview had more than 1 million likes on TikTok and nearly 800,000 on Instagram.
You Can Donate to Help Bambas Have the Life He ‘Was Hoping For’
You can still donate to the GoFundMe campaign for Bambas. The fundraiser includes more than 53,000 contributors, including singers Charlie Puth and Russell Dickerson, according to The New York Post.
“A heartwarming ceremony will take place Friday night at [Bambas’] job,” where he’ll be presented an account containing the funds, his son Michael Bambas told the outlet.
The Post reported that Ed Bambas was married to Joan for more than 50 years and together they had two children.
âI know what this is going to mean to him and that itâs going to change his life immensely,â Bambas told The Post. âHeâs finally going to enjoy life and not have to worry about, you know, where the next dollar is gonna have to come from.â
The post Heartbreaking Viral Interview Spurs Strangers to Donate $1.5M So 88-Year-Old Army Vet Can Retire appeared first on EntertainmentNow.