On a warm day in sunny St, Petersburg, Florida, John Joyce put on his hat and headed outside. He pulled his push mower and started walking down his driveway, into the street and then he just kept going. He walked mile after mile as the sun hit his back, stopping along the way to mow the lawns of his customers, who smiled and said hello to him
His customers were very happy to see John. For some, he had been cutting their grass for over 20 years. Everyone knew John was a dependable and hard-working man.
What his customers didn't know was that John's truck stopped working a few months back. Unable to fix it, the 83-year-old man with arthritis started walking to the homes of his customers. He would walk 5-6 miles each day, just to make sure everyone was taken care of. That's just the kind of man he was. Robert Norton, one of John's customers explained, "John is a simple man with a heart of gold."
So when Robert and his newly-wed wife, Nikki, learned that John was walking to work, they knew it was time to do something for him. They started a GoFundMe page, giving some of the money they'd received from their wedding to kick it off. In a few weeks they successfully raised $13, 000. It was enough to buy John a truck from a used-car dealer, buy him a new lawn mower and pay for gas!
John was very moved by the generosity shown to him. Not surprisingly, once the celebration was complete, John drove off the lot, and headed off to mow lawns!
