If you live to be 100 years old, you’ll probably expect that someone will bake you a birthday cake. If you have a family, that will probably happen, but not every person who lives to be that age has families. A man named Ben Bird has known a lady named Dorothy “Mercy” Ballard for a long time. When he picks up her trash on Thursday mornings, they always enjoy a nice chat and even discovered that when Ben had a baby girl, he named her Daisy, which just happened to be Mercy’s mother’s name. In their talks, they talk about everything from family to technology, they say.
To encourage her to keep trudging along, Ben told her that if she made it to her 100th birthday, he would personally show up at her door with a birthday cake, and that’s exactly what happened. Ben and his colleagues kept their end of the bargain because Mercy kept her end. Fortunately, they took a video of the event and it’s been shared all over the internet. As the three garbage truck workers sang “Happy Birthday,” Mercy blew out the candles on her cake. In an interview with ITV News, Mercy’s granddaughter said that the gesture made her grandmother’s day, and acknowledges how blessed they are to have her.
Rumble video screengrab
Ben explained that every day between 8:00 and 8:10 a.m. he and Mercy have a chat when he walks up to her garden path. She’s always there waiting for him, he says. For her birthday, Mercy also received a telegram from Queen Elizabeth II, which also brightened her day. Ben says that he’s had his job for about 11 years and he thoroughly enjoys hearing the stories that Mercy shares about her life. He says that technology is amazing to her.
Mercy and Ben are friendship goals! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/khZjUCh60G
— This Morning (@thismorning) August 13, 2019
Another great-grandchild said that “Gran” is always talking about Ben. Watch this heartwarming video below.