(NewsNation) — When a local farmer walked into a pharmacy in Alabama and handed the owner, Brooke Walker, a $100 bill to help people pay for their prescriptions, she was blown away.
She was also not expecting he would return. But he did, the next month. And the month after that. And the month after that.
In total, according to the Washington Post, Hody Childress, a local farmer, made these donations to Geraldine Pharmacy for about 10 years.
The first time Childress, who recently passed away at the age of 80, came in, Walker said he asked her if anybody ever needed help paying for their medication.
“I told them that they did,” she said. That’s when he gave her the first $100. He asked Walker one thing — not to tell where the money came from, and just to say it was a blessing from the Lord.
No one other than Walker knew of Childress’ good deeds. Before he died, the drugstore benefactor was on bed rest, his daughter, Tania Nix said, so she had been doing the errands and going to the drugstore.
Childress told his daughter he wanted her to continue his charitable work as long as he was alive.
“He said, ‘I’ve been doing something for a while and I’d love for you to continue it as long as I’m alive,'” Nix said on “Morning in America.”
Nix hadn’t known what her father had been doing, but when she learned, she wasn’t surprised.
“He was always a generous, kind, loving man,” Nix said. “He tried to live by the Bible, he read the Bible every day and prayed and I felt like … he was led to help people.”
Childress died on Jan. 1, though his legacy goes on. With word of his philanthropy now spreading, the family has received 11 envelopes in just the past week, with $2,400 in cash from people who wanted to assist others in getting their medications.
Now, there’s a Venmo account, @Hodysheart, for people who want to donate even if they’re not from Alabama. Another option is going through GeraldineDrugs.com.