Hody Childress was a farmer living off his meager retirement savings in the small town of Geraldine, Alabama.
About 10 years ago, he walked into Geraldine Drugs and pulled aside owner Brooke Walker to ask if there were families in town who couldn’t afford to pay for their medications….and of course there were many.
So Hody handed the pharmacist a $100 bill, all folded up. He told her to use it for anyone who couldn’t afford their prescriptions.
And he added, “Don’t tell a soul where the money came from — if they ask, just tell them it’s a blessing from the Lord.”
A month later, Childress returned and handed Walker another folded up $100 bill. And he repeated this every month for years, until he became too weak late last year from the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to make the trip.
When Childress died on New Year’s Day at age 80, Walker said she decided to let his family know about the donations that had helped several hundred people in the farming community.
As the years went on, Childress’s $100 bills added up to thousands of dollars that Walker was usually able to help two people a month who didn’t have insurance or whose benefits wouldn’t cover their medications.
Now, after his death people in Geraldine are keeping Hody’s legacy alive dropping by the drugstore with donations of their own.
The drugstore calls it the Hody Childress Fund.