Feelin Good - An Army Veteran Can Finally Retire

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning at Schmidty, and this might be one of
my most favorite feeling good stories I've ever done. Ed
Bambas is an eighty eight year old Army veteran who
may finally get the chance to retire. Here's the deal.
Ed retired from General Motors back in nineteen ninety nine
with the expectation of a stable pension, but unfortunately that

(00:22):
wasn't the case. When the company plunged into bankruptcy in
two thousand and nine over some legal battles, Bambas ended
up losing that pension along with his wife of fifty years,
who then became ill. Ed nearly lost it all. He
said he had to sell his home his properties in
order to pay for his wife's treatment because he was

(00:43):
left with almost nothing. Joan passed away seven years ago,
and now Ed has been taking any job he can
get to keep himself in survival mode. He's worked at
Ace Hardwares. He is currently a cashier at a Meyer
in Detroit, and that's where influencer Sam Wiedenhoffer learned about him.
Someone popped in the comments to tell this really great

(01:06):
story about a really great guy, Sam who calls himself
part of the kindness Army actually traveled to Detroit to
find Editmeyer. I actually had someone nominate you from this
store and said, you're very hard working. Well, I try
to be. May I ask how old you are? I
made I'm still working, Yes, I have to Why do

(01:26):
you have to keep working? Retired from General Mortars in
ninety twenty twelve they went bankrupt and they took my
pension away from it. Do you have a wife? She'd
passed away seven years ago. Seven years ago. She was
sick when I lost my pension. So you've been struggling
a bit, a little bit since then. I've been trying
to re establish myself and you're working here. How many

(01:49):
days a week? I worked five days a week, eight
hours a day. What's your dream? To live somewhat the
life I hoped for? His dream is to live at
least a little little bit of the life he had
hoped for. He is working forty hours a week, but
no more. Because Sam just posted an Instagram update that

(02:09):
in just thirty six hours, the internet raised more than
a million dollars for ED. A game is a huge support.
Major stars like Charlie Pooth have been re sharing this story,
and ED is finally going to be able to take
the well deserved rest. And I gotta tell you the

(02:31):
video is beautiful. Ed is just the sweetest, kindest, most
gentle soul so deserving of this. Check it out West
Michigan Star dot com and I'll have the update when
Ed gets the big surprise.