An elderly Tennessee movie theater worker was gifted over $146,000 after a video of her hard at work went viral — and thousands of strangers came together to help her “enjoy the retirement she deserves.”
Mary Ellen Eron, 85, was captured lifting a heavy black garbage bag and pushing a cleaning cart at an AMC theater in Maryville, about 16 miles south of Knoxville.
“Let’s secretly help retire this beautiful woman. No one deserves to work at this age,” movie theater attendee, Brooklyn Green, captioned the video, which has gained over 2 million likes since it was posted on Monday.
Green felt inspired to do something good for Mary — a stranger — after witnessing how hard she had been working, and launched a fundraiser to help her with her retirement.
“I knew nothing about her. I didn’t even know her name when I went to the theater,” Green told WATE.
“Her physical appearance didn’t look too comfortable, especially since the way she was working so hard. So I just decided, let’s shoot our shot. Let’s try to retire her and thought just a couple of friends would donate,” Green added.
Far more than a few friends decided to donate. In just 48 hours, the GoFundMe received over 7,500 donations, totaling $146,317.
Green had hoped to go back to the theater and surprise Eron, who has worked in movie theaters for 45 years. But she had learned she had gone viral on her own.
“I said, let’s surprise this beautiful woman and try to retire her. I kept it quiet, and then in the middle of the night, her neighbor knocked on her door and said, ‘Hey, you’re going viral.’ So that’s when she found out about it. She didn’t have a clue how much it was, though,” Green said.
Green shared a TikTok on Wednesday showing the moment she told Eron how much money had been raised for her. At Eron’s request, the GoFundMe was closed Tuesday night.
“Oh my goodness. That’s a lot of money,” Eron said, looking at the paper that had the total written on it.
“That’s a lot of money, and you deserve every bit of it,” Green said.
It remains to be seen whether Eron will retire. Her manager told Green that she has been working at movie theaters for decades and loves the work. Commenters on the original TikTok who knew Eron said the same.
“So I actually worked at this AMC that’s MARY! We love Mary! She REFUSES to retire! She doesn’t want to sit at home and be bored. She LOVES her job!” one commenter wrote.
Green also said that in her free time, Eron has been helping a mother and her children, and people experiencing homelessness.
Still, the kind gesture was not lost on Eron, who thanked all of the kindhearted people for their donations.
“Thank you so very much to all the wonderful people that donated money to the GoFundMe,” she said in the video. “I’m overwhelmed and certainly blessed by the Lord and you wonderful people. Thank you once more.”
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