By Jackson Russell
A GOOD samaritan says she was touched to read about Kilmore resident John Drummy’s story after paying for his shopping at Aldi Kilmore last month.
After Mr Drummy forgot his wallet while shopping, Ashleigh Davies paid for his trolley-load, worth more than $100, which was a nice surprise for someone visibly going through a tough time.
Ms Davies, who has a surgical nursing background, said she noticed Mr Drummy’s bandaged arm and realised he had recently had surgery.
“I thought life is hard enough as it is then to go and get your groceries after an operation and realise you’d forgotten your wallet, I thought sometimes life is really bad and I can help this guy without him knowing,” she said.
“I wanted him to know that even though he’s going through a hard time, there are people in the world willing to help.”
While she noticed Mr Drummy had undergone an operation on his broken hand, Ms Davies said she did not know just how hard the past 18 months had been for him, having fought cancer and written off his car as well.
It was also somewhat of a parting gift from Ms Davies to the Kilmore community as she was preparing to move to Queensland for work.
She only found out about the Mr Drummy’s message of thanks in the Review on the last leg of her two-day drive north.
“I’d never met him but he seemed like a lovely guy and wasn’t trying to do a dodgy and I thought I’ve gone through things myself where you’re down and out and everything sucks, and for him to be in that position where he had an operation and gone through COVID, it’s a nice gift I could give somebody to keep that community spirit going,” she said.
“I’d just finished driving 12 hours and Mum read it to me on the last half hour of the drive.
“I didn’t expect an article, I just wanted to help him.
“To get that on the last bit of my drive, I got goosebumps all over my body. I was so touched he went out of his way to thank me when he didn’t have to.”
