85-Year-Old McDonald's Employee Receives Over $95,000 In Donations After Wife Dies In Restaurant

October 23, 2018

An online fundraiser has collected nearly $100,000 for Wendall Gill, an 85-year-old man who was left to care for his two grandsons who have special needs after his wife died at the McDonald's he's worked at for 40 years.

money raised for wendall mcdonalds employee
Wendall / Credit: GoFundMe

Two months ago, Wendall and his wife, Della, decided to stop in McDonald's for lunch while running errands. It would be their last meal together, as she went to the restroom and never came out, dying of an aneurysm.

Wendall has cleaned the restrooms and taken out the trash at the restaurant for more than four decades, and it is where he first met former employee and lifelong friend, Todd Oldfield.

"When he walked up I could tell he was just destroyed, and he said "I lost my wife," Oldfield said.

Wendall was married to Della for 68 years.

"Della was his swan; his soul. Wendall is devastated; lost; totally empty now. Nothing is left," Oldfield said.

Oldfield wanted to help his friend out, so he set up a GoFundMe page for Wendall, who still cares for two adult special needs grandsons.

"Wendall has to keep working right there in the store, walking past this restroom, cleaning it daily," Oldfield wrote on GoFundme. "This memory of what happened in there will never leave him I fear. And, he cannot leave the store. He has no money. He has to keep going... he has to keep strong. I cannot even imagine the torture."

In less than a month, the fundraiser has collected more than $95,000. The money will go toward paying off Wendall's vehicles and other outstanding debt.

Oldfield hopes that the fundraiser will be enough for Wendall to retire.