When 21-year-old Brooklyn Green finished watching a movie with her grandparents at an AMC theater in Maryville, Tennessee, she noticed an 85-year-old woman hauling a heavy black garbage bag and pushing a cleaning cart through the lobby, and something about the sight made her stop. She drove home, pulled up her phone, and posted a video she had discreetly filmed, captioning it: "Let's secretly help retire this beautiful woman. No one deserves to work at this age." Then she opened a GoFundMe page with the same goal, fully expecting a few of her friends to see it. Within 48 hours, 7,500 people had donated, and the total had reached $146,317. Green said she had not even known the woman's name when she started. The woman's name is Mary Ellen Eron, and she has been working in movie theaters for 45 years.

Green went back to the theater to present Eron with the news in person, bringing a piece of paper showing the total raised, and the moment she filmed of Eron's reaction has also gone viral: hands over her mouth, the single response "Oh my goodness gracious, that's a lot of money," and then a pause that said everything else. What has emerged since is a picture of someone whose generosity was already flowing outward long before the internet turned its attention her way. Eron's manager told Green that she loves her work and is widely known at the theater as a giver, and Eron herself confirmed she had been quietly helping a local mother and her children as well as people experiencing homelessness in the area. The decision of whether to retire now rests with Eron alone, and as of this writing she has not made a final announcement. Green said she was overwhelmed by the response and that the people who did not donate but left supportive comments meant just as much to her as the donations, adding simply that she was thankful people had trusted her with those funds and to give them to Mary.

Source:https://people.com/woman-raises-over-usd140k-for-elderly-movie-worker-s-retirement-11990103