Nola Carpenter, who is 81 years old, said she can finally retire after a 15-second video of her went viral about a week ago. But first, she said she would stay at Walmart to help with shopping during the holidays, which are known to be very busy.
On November 3, 19-year-old TikToker Devan Bonagura posted a video of Carpenter sitting at a break room table at a New Jersey Walmart with the caption “Life shouldn’t be this hard.” More than 30 million people have seen it. (Bonagura later told viewers that he didn’t work for Walmart but for a third-party company that sells products there.) Soon after that, Bonagura set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for Carpenter’s retirement.
Two days later, Bonagura posted a video of himself meeting up with Carpenter to give her the account, which at the time had $110,000 in donations.
Carpenter thanked the donors and said that the money would help her mortgage go “way down,” but she also made it clear that it wouldn’t be enough for her to retire, as it seemed the donors wanted.
I’d accept it,”
she told him of the money,
but I’d still have to work until I get the other $60,000 paid off on the house.
At Walmart, the average hourly wage is $19, so it would have taken Carpenter a few more years of 40-hour work weeks to save up an extra $60,000. Carpenter couldn’t retire because she didn’t have enough money saved up, just like millions of other US workers.
On November 13, Bonagura posted a follow-up video with Carpenter. By that time, GoFundMe had reached $180,000, which was more than what she had said she would need to pay off her mortgage. 13,500 people had given money.
Carpenter told Bonagura that she was “ecstatic” about the help and thanked everyone who “spread the word” or gave money so she could now retire in comfort.
That’s what I was working at Walmart for — to pay my house off,
she explained.
Carpenter told Bonagura that she has worked at Walmart for 20 years and that she’ll miss the regulars.
I’m going to miss my customers. They look for me every day.
Even though Carpenter got a windfall, she doesn’t plan to “fully retire” until January.
I’m going to help them out for the holidays, and after that, it’ll be good to stay at home.
Insider asked Nola Carpenter and Devan Bonagura for their thoughts, but they didn’t answer right away.
