My father had little formal education. He took care of my mom, me, and my three siblings by earning money with his back and his brawn. He worked for more than 60 years, first as a farm worker in the fields and then as a truck driver/delivery man. He faced every day — and every challenge — with grace and dignity. He rarely complained. I couldn’t be more proud of him and the values he lived by each day. This story makes me think of my dad.
What started as every employee’s worst nightmare had a pretty happy ending for Walter Carr, 20, a college student from Alabama.
The night before Carr’s first day on the job, his 2003 Nissan Altima broke down.
He called his friends and his girlfriend to try to get a ride, but nothing worked out. He checked his GPS and saw that without a car it would take him about 7 hours to get from his house in Homewood, Alabama, to the town of Pelham for his first day at Bellhops moving company.
He decided to walk.
Carr started his 20-mile trek sometime around midnight.
“I wanted to be there before 8,” he said. “I wanted to beat the crew members there to let the company know how dedicated I am.”
What a fine young man. And now, he’s been rewarded.
Lamey’s post went viral and caught the attention of Luke Marklin, the Bellhops CEO, on Sunday morning. Marklin said he started getting texts about Carr’s story and got his team together to figure how they could thank him.
“Just sitting there reading it, I was just blown away,” Marklin said. “The more we learned, the more we realized Walter was just a special person.”
Marklin met Carr on Monday to thank him and decided to gift him his personal Ford Escape. Carr was surprised, to say the least.
“I think he was pretty happy,” Marklin said, laughing. “His resolve to get through challenges is just something that legends are made of, really.”
Like Lamey, Marklin said he was impressed by Carr’s determination.
“It was wonderful to get to know him. Walter is a person who has had adversity throughout his life,” he said. “I don’t think Walter … was ever going to let not having a car get him down.”