Bob CollinsA happy end to a sad story of a veteran who felt compelled to sell his hearing aids can’t mask an important truth: people can be jerks.
Gilbert Hoppe, 75 of North Mankato, Minn., posted a photo of his hearing aids on the Mankato Area For Sale Facebook page because he wanted to raise money to buy a vehicle that could help him get to his VA appointments.
Sure, hearing aids are worthless to anyone else because they’re molded to someone’s ear. But come on, people; a veteran needing to sell his hearing aids? That’s a call to action for decent folk.
“The worst was probably the one that called him an idiot and said he couldn’t sell those hearing aids. Obviously that person didn’t put himself in Gilbert’s shoes,” Kristi Bighley, who did, tells KARE 11 about the Facebook comments.
“It was pretty rude, the way some of them were talking,” Hoppe tells the Star Tribune.
Count Bighley among the decent folk. She, Jena Faue and Chris Wright, who didn’t know him, reached out to him, found out he has cancer and cares for his wife Linda, who needs oxygen and struggles with COPD.
They put together a GoFundMe page and also a fundraiser in Eagle Lake on Sunday, KARE says.
As of this morning, the better angels had raised almost $10,000.
