A 21-year-old hoped to raise $500 for an 80-year-old cinema cleaner in Tennessee. Strangers gave $146,000

Brooklyn Green, 21, went to see a film with her grandparents at the AMC cinema in Maryville, Tennessee, and noticed an older woman pushing a cleaning cart and emptying the bins after the screening, WVLT reported in June.

I just saw her work ethic. She was just working really hard.Brooklyn Green, to WVLT

She filmed a few seconds of her, posted it on TikTok and set up a GoFundMe in the hope that the woman might one day be able to retire. She expected friends and family to give about $500. Strangers gave more than $100,000 on the first day, and about $146,000 in less than 24 hours.

Mary

When Green went back to find her, the woman was not working that day. A manager told her that her name was Mary, that she had worked in cinemas for more than 45 years, that she liked her job, and that she worried about what would happen to her if she stopped. Mary also gives what she can to her church and to people who are homeless.

She told me that she helps a mother and child and some of the homeless, and I told her that it comes back tenfold.Brooklyn Green, to WVLT

Some people online said Green should have asked Mary first. Green replied that the decision was Mary’s alone. “If she decides to give it to a charity or whatever then that is her decision. She is getting every penny,” she wrote.

The tablet

Mary knew nothing about any of it until Green came back to the cinema while she was working and showed her the total on a tablet.

Thank you so very much to all the wonderful people that have donated money. I’m overwhelmed and certainly blessed by the Lord and you wonderful people.Mary, to WVLT

She then asked for the GoFundMe to be paused, saying she had already received more than she could ask for.