Pay-It-Forward Story Of Farmer Inspires People Around The Country

An inspiring pay-it-forward story can inspire people. farmer’s good deeds were revealed after he passed away on New Year’s Day.

Hody Childress, a farmer and Air Force veteran from Alabama, went into a drugstore about a decade ago and asked the owner if there were people who weren’t able to pay for their medicine.

“I told him, ‘Yes, unfortunately that happens often,’” Brooke Walker, owner said. “And he handed me a $100 bill, all folded up.”

But he didn’t want credit for it.

“He said, ‘Don’t tell a soul where the money came from — if they ask, just tell them it’s a blessing from the Lord,’” She said.

He anonymously provided resources to people for many years in the form a $100 bill each monthly. His actions were able to bless all those around him.

“His kindness motivated me to be more of a compassionate person,” Walker said. “He was just a good old guy who wanted to bless his community, and he certainly did. He established a legacy of kindness.”

Walker gave Walker money that grew to thousands of dollar and was able to help two people every month who needed assistance with paying for their medicines.

Walker was contemplating reaching out his family. However, his daughter was also getting ready for people to know about the gifts at his funeral because he had previously told her about them.

“He told me he’d been carrying a $100 bill to the pharmacist in Geraldine on the first of each month, and he didn’t want to know who she’d helped with it — he just wanted to bless people with it,” Tania Nix, his child, stated.

“It was just who he was — it was in his heart,” Nix was also added.

Childress told Nix to make it possible for her to do so. do it for him when his health didn’t allow for it. Childress was able to survive on Social Security and a minimum retirement.

“He didn’t spend a lot of money in life, but he always gave what he could,” She said. “If he took you out to eat, you had to be quick to grab the ticket, or he was paying for it.”

Despite having lived through tragedy, he was still a positive person. His father and son died in a tornado in 1973.

“That was really hard on him, but he never complained,” Nix stated. “He never lost his optimism.”

She said that when people realized at his funeral that he had helped them, they were stunned.

“I heard from people who said they’d been going through a rough time and their prescriptions were paid for when they went to pick them up,” She said.

His actions have inspired others to give to the pharmacy.

“We’re calling it the Hody Childress Fund, and we’re going to keep it going as long as the community and Hody’s family wants to keep it alive,” She said.

The New York Times reported Walker and Nix have been contacted from all parts of the country by people who wish to donate since The Washington Post published their story. One man from Miami even decided to open a fund by going to his local drugstore.

One woman, Ms. Schlageter, was able to get her son an EpiPen because of Childress’ money, but she didn’t know he was behind it.

“All of a sudden it comes out that Mr. Hody did it,” Schlageter said. “What he doesn’t know, now that he’s in heaven, is that he helped a kid that works on a farm that he started. Look at that circle.”

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