LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tragedy struck Wendall Gill about two months ago when his wife of 68 years visited him for lunch at the Lexington, Ky., McDonald’s he’s worked at for some four decades.
Della Gill went to the restroom, WKYT reports, where she had an aneurysm and later died. Gill, 85, was devastated, telling the Washington Post, “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.”
Now, Gill is the sole 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, He tells the Lexington Herald-Leader.
After Della Gill died, Wendall Gill was back working at the McDonald’s. Michael Todd Oldfield, who met Gill in 1978 when he worked at the restaurant as a teen, walked in and asked how he was doing.
“He began telling me this story, and he couldn’t go 30 seconds without welling up,” Oldfield tells the Post. “I was torn up” by Gill’s story, he says, and decided to do something to ease Gill’s burden. The result was a GoFundMe page headlined “Wendall Needs Us To Serve Him Now!” As of this writing, more than $76,000 has been raised.
The money is intended to pay off Gill’s two vehicles, as well as cover his mortgage and 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.
Of his older grandson, who is 33, Gill tells the Post, “He’ll kind of cry a little every now and then and say, ‘I miss granny.'”
(A mystery donor gave $130K to pay for a boy’s cancer treatment.)
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