Student Surprised With Car Left By Woman Before She Passed Away

This is the moment a young student who could not get to college on public transport burst into tears when he discovered that an elderly woman who had passed away had left him her car. Jared Ledford, 20, had qualified for Northeast Community College in Blountville, Tennessee, but he had no way of getting to the main campus for the majority of his classes. Some of the classes were available locally, Jared said, but faced with a roughly-45-minute drive from his home for the other classes, the carless 20-year-old was facing the prospect of not being able to finish his studies. Fortunately, Jared is well liked in his local community of Elizabethton, Tennessee, as he often helps out at the TLC Community Center. The center works with local schools, the elderly community and on charity events. Jared often helped out with TLC's food program, heading to the center to cook, sort food and help deliver the meals on the center vans to children’s homes. Last summer, the center’s food program provided 80,000 meals to children. In recent weeks, Angie Odom, the center’s founder, had been contacted by two men, who said their deceased mother wanted to donate her car to the center, so that it could be presented to someone in need. That woman was Kaitlin McKinney, 90, a Hungarian immigrant who had moved to the US aged 16 for medical training during World War II, and who went on to marry a US soldier and become a citizen. Angie said she knew just the person for Kaitlin’s car, a 1994 Achieva Oldsmobile. And so, on February 11, Jared was brought to the center’s parking lot, where he was encouraged to sit in his new vehicle and immediately broke down at the act of kindness.