Six months ago, 55-year-old Billy Ray Harris was homeless. He lived on a street corner in Kansas City, holding out a cup and asking passers-by for spare change. But then, one day, his life changed.
In February, Sarah Darling passed Harris at his usual spot and dropped some change into his cup. But, unbeknownst to her, she also accidentally dropped in her engagement ring.
Though Harris considered selling the ring — he got it appraised for $4,000 — he ultimately couldn’t go through with it, and a few days later, he returned the ring to Darling.
“I am not trying to say that I am no saint, but I am no devil either,” he said at the time.
As a way to say thank you, Darling and her husband Bill Krejci started a fund to raise money for Harris to help him get his life back on track. “We set a goal for a thousand dollars,” Darling told TODAY in March. “We set it up because a lot of people who had been touched by the story expressed interest in helping Billy Ray.”
The fund raised far more than any of them expected — in just three months, people donated more than $190,000.
Harris talked to a lawyer, who helped him put the money in a trust. Since then, he’s been able to buy a car and even put money down on a house, which he’s fixing up himself.
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article courtesy of TheGrio.com/TheTodayShow
Man Who Returned Ring No Longer Homeless: ‘I Feel Human Now’ was originally published on praisecleveland.com
