Last Friday morning I was sitting in the newsroom of the Galway Advertiser when I received a phone call from a very distressed lady. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, had been in town with her elderly mother the previous day. Her mother, who was recently bereaved having lost her husband a month ago, went to the post office to withdraw her Christmas pension payment. The elderly woman lost the money at some stage on Thursday and was understandably extremely upset.
The story was posted on the Galway Advertiser Facebook page, in the hope that if an honest soul had found the money, he/she would read it and hand the envelope into Galway Garda Station. Unfortunately that did not transpire - but something even more heartwarming did. The story seemed to resonate with people - and was quickly shared thousands of times. Meanwhile Galway woman Laura Ruddy felt so strongly about the woman’s misfortune that she took it upon herself to set up a fundraising page to recoup some of the lost pension.
Thanks to the immense generosity of our Facebook friends, the Go Fund Me page quickly took on a life of its own and donations steadily rose all day Friday. The collection resulted in an amazing final tally of more than €1,700. This was obviously well above the sum of money lost by the pensioner so it now means a substantial donation can also be made to Galway St Vincent De Paul.
In journalism, you witness every side of human nature, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly, but what happened on Friday is a reminder of the immense goodwill that is all around us. That people were prepared to dig into their own pockets and help out somebody they did not know after reading a Facebook message embodies the whole spirit of Christmas.
The local woman, whose mother lost the money, said she was completely overwhelmed at people’s generosity. “It is really just so touching. We are so grateful to everybody who donated. I never in a million years expected this to happen following a simple phone call to the local paper. The only reason I rang was because I know the Advertiser has such a big Facebook following and I just thought that maybe if someone found the money and read what had happened they would be good natured enough to give it back. I did not bank on hundreds of people showing their goodwill by raising the money. It is amazing.”
However this woman says she loves the idea of people helping people, and what has really raised her and her mother’s spirits following their bereavement, is the fact that the less well off will now also benefit. “I believe my Dad had a part to play in this. And while my mother is thrilled to get the money she lost back, what has made her so happy is the idea that a big chunk of money is now going to be donated to St Vincent De Paul as the charity is well known for helping struggling pensioners and those who have not got a lot and it is a really excellent cause. She is going through a very tough time having lost my dad, but this has given her a real lift.”
Laura Ruddy, whose caring nature led her to organise the fundraiser, was blown away by the amount of donations in such a short space of time. “I could see immediately when the message outlining what had happened to the woman originally went up on the Galway Advertiser Facebook that lots of people genuinely wanted to help. It was obviously a story that resonated strongly - maybe they were imagining someone they knew in the same situation. So I decided to bite the bullet and set up a Go Fund Me account. We had an initial target of €500 and we hit that in a few hours, then we had another target of €1,000, which was quickly surpassed as well. I am just blown away by people’s kindness.”
