There are millions of disabled veterans across the country and even more people who walk by them every day without a second thought. When this girl saw a veteran struggling in a Walmart parking lot, she had an uncommon reaction that very few people would ever consider doing.
Morgan Wheeler of Fayetteville, West Virginia, will never forget the day she crossed paths with a disabled veteran, who she believed to be in his 60s or 70s, struggling to maneuver his wheelchair through a Walmart parking lot. After she walked out of the store and got in her car, she began to pull out when she had to wait for the man in the wheelchair to pass by.
“As I watched him, I noticed that he was missing his right leg from the knee down and was wearing, what appeared to be, old, government issued, combat boots,” Morgan recalled. After explaining that it appeared that the man had stopped to take a break, she added, “He had not realized that I had started my car and was attempting to pull out, so when he saw me, he waved in an apologetic manner and rolled forward three more times and took another break.”
Stock Image (Photo Credit: stevepb/Pixabay)
But, Morgan didn’t leave. “I backed up my car the inches I had previously pulled forward, put it in park, turned off the engine, and got out. I walked up to him and introduced myself.” The 21-year-old then asked the man if she could be of any assistance.
However, he said that he didn’t need any help. “He, quite grumpily, said that he was doing just fine,” Morgan said, but she was undeterred. “Me, being as stubborn as I am, insisted and proceeded to push him and tell him a little about myself.”
Morgan Wheeler (Photo Credit: Facebook)
“He was very grumpy at first, but you could tell he was a proud veteran,” Moran would later tell TODAY. “I really wanted to help him so I pushed through his comfort zone a bit.” And, push she did. She didn’t listen when he said he didn’t want help. Instead, she wheeled him into the store, and she certainly didn’t take the hint when he tried to shut her up as she told him about her life.
“He interrupted me and said that he only needed help to the door, to which I picked up where I had left off before he interrupted me,” Morgan said, recalling the conversation. “I told him about Fayetteville, and my horses, and my nephews,” she continued, adding that she “had parked a good ways away from the doors.” But, the doors wouldn’t make a difference anyway because Morgan wasn’t about to stop there.
“This is the world we live in today. How many people passed him and would have continued to pass him while he struggled?” she then asked rhetorically, humbled by the experience and saddened by the idea that a person who risked everything for our freedoms could be ignored by everyone around him as he struggled.
Her post perfectly concluded, “Today was a truly humbling experience for me, and I consider myself extremely blessed to have the capability of understanding what is truly important in this world. THAT man was a HERO, and far too many will say otherwise. I am sorry that this post was so long, and if you have read it to this point, I hope you are as humbled as I was. God bless the men and women who have fought for our right to view the wrong people as heroes, and thank God for the people who know better.”