Man sells firewood to pay dead wife’s medical bills

Photo: James Edward Bates

Kenneth Smith of Mississippi is near 80 years old and he can’t afford to stop working.

He sells firewood by the side of the road — $5 a bundle. He’s been doing it since last year and when he first started, his wife, Helen, was alongside him.

This is how he pays his wife’s medical bills, his daughter says.

“On a fixed income of social security alone, it can be hard to do,” she writes on a GoFundMe page. “His wife lost her battle with cancer a few weeks ago and now his income has been cut in half. They spent their life savings during her cancer battle. He is still selling fire wood for extra income but some people have asked if they could help him out so this is the reason I have setup this account for him.”

“I appreciate it,” he told the Gulfport Sun Herald between customers, “but I didn’t come out here to be a panhandler.”