It should have been the ‘golden years’ of his life. But they were far from golden. 85-year-old Wendall Gill works at a McDonald’s full-time. He also cares for his two special needs grandsons. Wendall does this all by himself ever since his beloved wife of nearly seventy years died suddenly.
You see, tragedy struck Wendall about two months ago. Wendall’s wife of 68 years visited him at McDonald’s for lunch in Lexington, Ky. where he worked.
Della Gill stood up and went to the restroom, WKYT reports. There she had an aneurysm and would later die. Wendall was devastated at the loss of his wife.
“They say you get over things, but when I think of her, I start crying. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.” said Wendall.
Now, Wendall is the only caregiver to his adult grandsons, both of whom have special needs.
“I’ve got my hands full trying to work and take care of them, too”
After his wifes death, Wendall was back working at McDonald’s. Michael Todd Oldfield, who first met Gill in 1978 when he actually worked at the restaurant as a teen, walked into the resturant and asked how Wendall was doing.
“He began telling me this story, and he couldn’t go 30 seconds without welling up,” Oldfield said.
“I was torn up” Oldfield says of Wendall’s story., Oldfield decided to do something to ease Wendall’s burden. He started a GoFundMe page headlined “Wendall Needs Us To Serve Him Now!”
As of this writing, more than $86,000 has been raised.
More than 1,300 people have donated to the page in the past 26 days. “People have really, really responded,” said Oldfield. “People just love him.”
“He should not be worrying right now about where every dollar is going to come from,” Oldfield wrote on Wendall’s fundraising page.
“That is my prayer. If you drop by McDonald’s and see him there, say hello. Tell him sorry you are for his loss, and how much you love him and how much you pray for his strength, and peace.”
The money is intended to pay off Gill’s vehicles, as well as cover his mortgage as well as other bills. And now that his wife is gone, Gill will need to take time off of work to take his grandsons to doctor appointments.
Wendall has been overwhelmed by all the recent attention, Oldfield said. It is not his way to be demonstrative. “He’s very shy. He’s introverted. He’s a simple, simple man … He cannot talk about Della. He gets very, very emotional.”
