Hody Childress, on the left, with his wife Martha Jo.
For years, an American farmer from the small Alabama town of Geraldine kept paying the pharmaceutical bills of strangers while keeping it a secret. Now that the town community is aware of the truth about the good man's charitable work after his death, they have opted to donate in his honour and continue his charity activities.
According to the Guardian, Hody Childress, a farmer and US Air Force veteran, began his anonymous charitable campaign when he walked into a drug store in his home town of Geraldine in 2012 and learned from the owner that sometimes families can't afford to pay for their medicines.
"Do not tell a soul that money came from me," the owner of Geraldine Drugs, Brooke Walker, recalled Childress saying, according to a Washington Post report on Thursday. "If they ask, just tell them it's a blessing from the Lord."
He paid his neighbourhood drugstore $100 per month to help anyone who couldn't afford to pay for their prescriptions.
Though it was difficult to move in the final months of his life, Hody eventually told his daughter so that she could carry the money to the pharmacy.
On January 1, Mr. Childress passed away. He was survived by his second wife, Martha Jo, two biological children, three stepchildren, and fifteen grandchildren.
But his loved ones, friends, and admirers made donations to a fund so that his good deeds would continue for years to come.
According to the BBC, his family described him as a humble, God-loving man who would often send handwritten get-well cards and share vegetables from his garden with neighbours.