She Saw Him Struggling on Tarmac, Launched a GoFundMe

A chance glimpse out an airport window has turned into a six-figure lifeline for an airplane refueler in California. While waiting for a flight at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, LaCinda Thackeray noticed an employee in a reflective vest moving with obvious difficulty on the tarmac, per NBC Los Angeles. She filmed him and posted the clip to TikTok, asking if anyone knew the man who "could barely move" but kept working. A co-worker soon identified him as James Blair.

Thackeray, in town from Utah for a funeral, connected with Blair via FaceTime and launched a GoFundMe called "Help Him Retire With Dignity." As of Saturday morning, it had pulled in close to $160,000 toward a $200,000 target. Blair, who says he didn't seek help and is "just doing my job, trying to survive," plans to use the money to care for his 90-year-old mother—who fell in September and now needs constant supervision, per CBS News—and to pay for long-delayed knee surgery, per NBC.

The physically demanding refueling work had left him in near-constant pain, and he says the timing of the donations may have kept him from having to quit his job to look after his mother. Blair has since appeared in a follow-up TikTok with Thackeray. "I am a real person, the video you saw was real. That's the way I walk, even though I do not like the way I walk," he says in the clip, thanking everyone who donated.