wsvn.com · 1 hour ago

Teen Gives Stranger His Shoes on a Busy Street

Jordan was barefoot before he even understood why. Driving along a busy Arizona parkway, the 18-year-old spotted an elderly man crossing the street in shoes that had given up long ago, and something in him simply couldn't keep driving. He pulled over, slipped off his own size 13 Nike slides, and handed them to the man — who stood there, confused, holding a walker. But the story didn't end at the curb. Jordan felt another pull, what he called a "tug," and followed the man into the drugstore, helped him collect his prescription, bought him peanut M&Ms, and called a rideshare to see him home. Only then did he learn the man was 80, had lost his wife just two weeks before, and was still learning how to ask for help. "You don't know what they're going through," Jordan said — and he meant it literally, having just discovered the depth of what lay beneath a worn-out pair of shoes. The two are now friends, with plans to attend church together, and the teen — whose last name, fittingly, is Hope — has started a crowdfunding campaign to help the man find his footing in a life suddenly rearranged by grief.