Alabama farmer secretly used retirement savings to pay pharmacy bills of strangers. After his death, the town discovered how much he had donated

A customer struggling to pay for medicines would sometimes walk into a pharmacy in Geraldine, Alabama, only to discover that the bill had already been taken care of. For nearly a decade, someone had been quietly paying part of the cost, without asking for recognition or even wanting to know who received the help.

That person was Hody Childress, an 80-year-old farmer and Air Force veteran who donated $100 every month to the local pharmacy. He did not tell about this to anyone, including his own family, until shortly before his death on January 1, 2023. When his daughter eventually revealed what he had been doing, the town discovered the extent of his generosity.

How the donations started

Childress began making the donations back in 2012 after approaching Brooke Walker, the pharmacist at Geraldine Drugs. He asked whether she ever encountered customers who could not afford their prescriptions.


When Walker said that it happened regularly, he handed her a $100 bill and asked her to use it the next time someone needed help.

According to CBS News and the BBC, Childress insisted that his name should never be disclosed. He also did not want to know who received the money. Walker was instructed to tell anyone who asked that it was a blessing from God.

What began as a single donation became a monthly routine from him. For almost 10 years, Childress continued bringing Walker $100 to help customers pay for medicines they otherwise might have struggled to afford.

The people who benefited from it

The money helped people facing difficult choices over the cost of their prescriptions. One of them was Bree Schlageter, who was struggling financially when she needed medication.

Speaking to CBS News, Schlageter recalled, "To be honest, I was desperate... I thought, 'What am I going to do?' I was defeated. And [Walker] said, 'It's taken care of.' And I said, 'How?'"

Another family benefited when a school staff member's son needed an EpiPen, an emergency medicine used to treat severe allergic reactions. The device cost $600, which the family struggled to afford.

After Childress' daughter, Tania Nix, spoke about her father's donations at his funeral, the staff member approached her to express her gratitude. Nix told the BBC that the woman believed her father's help might have saved her son's life.

He kept giving as his health declined

Childress continued the monthly donations even as his own health worsened. When he became too unwell to visit the pharmacy, he asked Nix to take the $100 bill to Walker at the beginning of each month for as long as he was alive.

Nix agreed, although she had not known about the arrangement before her father explained it to her.

Childress died on January 1, 2023, after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health problems. Following his death, his family learned more about the donations he had made over the years. Reports put the total at nearly $12,000.

Town decided to continue the work

Nix revealed her father's secret at his funeral because she wanted people to understand the kind of person he had been. The story soon spread beyond Geraldine.

Geraldine Drugs began receiving calls and donations from people who wanted to keep the fund going. Others expressed interest in starting similar funds at their own pharmacies, according to CBS News.