A cup of coffee came with some extra dough.
A 78-year-old Tennessee retiree forced to work as a DoorDash driver with his unemployed wife to afford medication went viral after kind strangers raised nearly $500,000 for the down-on-their-luck couple.
Richard Pulley was captured on doorbell video seemingly struggling to deliver a Starbucks order to Brittany Smith’s doorstep in Manchester on Tuesday morning.
Pulley slowly walked up the pathway toward Smith’s home before hesitating for a moment in front of the steps leading to the front porch.
The delivery driver finds his footing and slowly bends down to drop off the order just before 11 a.m., according to the heartbreaking video shared to Smith’s TikTok.
After watching the video of the determined delivery driver, Smith set out to locate “Richard the Starbucks Delivery Man,” and within hours, internet sleuths identified the elderly man as Pulley.
The septuagenarian revealed that he and his wife, Brenda, have been tag-teaming DoorDash deliveries for over a year after she was fired from her job “at no fault of her own,” with Brenda driving and Pulley making the food drop-offs.
“When you’re past your mid-70s, there’s not exactly a line of people waiting to hire you,” Brenda told WSMV.
“With just one income in the family, you have to push … Just losing that, we had to supplement it,” Pulley added.
After learning about the heartbreaking story, Smith created a GoFundMe for the couple to “help Richard go back into retirement!!”
As of early Friday, the crowdsourcing campaign raised nearly $500,000.
Smith met with the Pulleys on Thursday to show them the fundraiser at a local burger joint.
The couple, who’ve been married for over 56 years, were left in shock by the generosity of strangers who wanted them to enjoy retirement, as the funds will ease the financial burdens they’ve been struggling with.
“It’s just really difficult to believe that there’s that many people that are that generous to try to help us … People that don’t even know us.
“We appreciate every one of them … it’s taking a lot of pressure off of us … and making life livable once again,” Pulley added.
“Sometimes you just look at all the things that you need to pay … because if it don’t, you’re going to end up in the hospital … with something even more expensive than that,” said Brenda, who deals with thousands of dollars in medical costs a year.
The couple was thankful for Smith’s kindness in going out of her way to locate them after the fateful delivery on Tuesday morning.
“She’s remarkable. I just can’t believe that someone would be that caring to set this up for us,” Brenda said.
The Post has reached out to DoorDash.
Smith’s fundraiser for the Pulleys comes three months after 88-year-old Army veteran Ed Bambas received a check for over $1.7 million after he was found working at a Meijer grocery store in Brighton, Michigan.
The octogenarian was forced to return to working a 40-hour shift after losing his pension and health insurance as his wife battled illnesses before she died.
Viral video highlights healthcare costs as Americans cut back on essentials
Roughly one in three Americans say they have cut back on everyday expenses to afford healthcare, according to new research from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.
In a survey of nearly 20,000 people, about one-third said they made at least one trade-off in daily living expenses to pay for healthcare.
Those trade-offs include stretching prescription medications to make them last longer, driving less and skipping meals.
The financial strain hits hardest among people without health insurance. Sixty-two percent of uninsured adults reported making at least one sacrifice to cover healthcare costs. However, even among insured Americans, nearly three in 10 reported cutting back on other expenses to afford care.
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A viral video of an elderly delivery driver has also highlighted the financial strain some Americans face.
Video from the homeowner’s doorbell camera shows the man, identified as Richard, delivering a Starbucks order. In the footage, he appears to struggle as he slowly climbs the steps to leave the order on the porch.
The woman who posted the video later tracked him down and learned he had recently started delivering for DoorDash after his wife lost her job. She said he told her that he was working to help cover household expenses, including the couple’s medications.
As of Monday, an online fundraiser created to help Richard retire had raised nearly $1 million from donors across the country.
