A 91-year-old veteran was selling wife's jewelry for rent. The pawn shop worker helped raise $500,000.

Inflation and rising utility bills have created a desperate situation where the elderly who saved up for retirement all their life are losing their money to survive. In such times, a simple act of kindness can make a world of difference. One such gesture noticed at a New England pawn shop later went viral for all the good reasons. Jenelle Marie, an employee at The U.S Gold and Pawn in Manchester, New Hampshire was touched to the core after a 91-year-old named Donald approached her to sell his wife's jewelry.

The 91-year-old veteran was pawning the piece of jewelry to keep up with rising rent. Donald, who is a former Air Force pilot, has been married to his wife for more than 60 years and is also her caregiver at the moment. Touched by the story, Jenelle spoke about Donald and his financial hardships with the pawn shop owner who asked the employee to take off the interest from what Donald had borrowed.

In the video uploaded on TikTok by @jenellemarie0212, the man can be seen struggling to find words when the employee handed him an envelope full of cash. "I can't let you do this for me," he said to which Jenelle said that the money didn't only come out of her pocket and was donated by 25 people. "I could never thank you for this, bless your heart. I am so excited I don't know what I am doing," the man added.

After the video was posted on TikTok, many jumped in to help him which prompted Jenelle to set up a page for him. In an interview with PEOPLE, Janelle talked about how the video went viral and shed light on her GoFundMe page. Not very long after that, donations started pouring in. "So I'm at work and another hour goes by,” Jenelle says. "I was busy with customers. I look at my TikTok again, and it's double the views, double the comments, double the likes, and double the money on the GoFundMe, at $5,000. I was like, ‘I cannot believe this.’ So now I have my friends and family texting me all day, ‘It's at $5,200, it's at $5,500.’ Everyone's giving me an update. I've never been viral anywhere," Jenelle told PEOPLE.

While speaking to NewsNation, Jenelle said that the old man's wife was diagnosed with dementia and the landlord had raised the rent in the meantime. "I told the owner of the shop and he decided he wasn't going to collect interest from him … I thought that was really kind of him, and it kind of inspired me and my fiancé to start what I thought was just going to be a little GoFundMe."

In the follow-up video, the woman was seen singing the birthday song for him while he was looking at all the handwritten messages he had received from people. After the first video, Marie was able to raise only $1,300, however by the time the video went viral the total amount of donations had hit $453,180. Many took to the video to praise the small act of kindness. "Thank you for your kindness and generosity towards Mr. Donald. He looks so happy," @MarcieB wrote. "His eyes when he‘s smiling purest and most adorable thing I have seen in a while," @Sa added. 

You can follow Jenelle Marie (@jenellemarie0212) on TikTok for such videos.