While many of us are able to stay inside and stay safe during these unprecedented times there are still countless essential workers who help keep our world running while we’re away.
Garbage workers still have to go out every day to collect people’s trash and ensure our neighborhoods are kept clean. But for one man his job was essential for more than one reason.
Jake Bland from Louisville, Kentucky, had come to know the neighborhoods that he served very well and that included the residents.
Being experienced in his job he noticed the trash missing from one household and not only that knew that it was the home of an elderly lady.
So instead of just ignoring this seemingly minor detail in his rounds Jake, who is company operations manager for Hometown Hauling, decided to find out if she was okay.
Jake and his crew learned that the 90-year-old woman had hardly any food in the house and couldn’t get out to buy more.
“She just didn’t have nothing to eat,” worker Bernice Arthur told WDRB News. “And that’s why she had no trash to put out there.”
After talking to the elderly lady they went out and shopped for essentials for her and hand-delivered them, refusing to accept any money for them.
“She has no family, nobody,” Bernice told WDRB. “I said, ‘You do have a family now.'”
Thankfully Jake and his crew got to the lady just in time as she felt she had nobody to turn to for help.
‘Check on them…let them know’
Bland and Arthur played an important role in potentially saving the woman’s life. Now they hope their story serves as a reminder to check on loved ones in any way possible.
“Had we not reached out to her — she wasn’t reaching out to anyone,” Bernice added. “It taught me, regardless, check on them. Put something on their porch. Let them know.”
You never know what’s going on with your neighbors unless you check. Jake’s story reminds us all that we should presume nothing, especially now when people are even more isolated.
Please share to remind others to check on their neighbors and thank Jake and his team for their kindness.
