88-year-old military veteran working at Meijer gifted $1.7M from donations

BRIGHTON, Mich. (FOX 2) - Edmund Bambas is an 88-year-old Brighton Meijer employee turned viral sensation.

The military veteran who was unable to afford retirement, had his story catch fire around the world.

The backstory:

"You get three hundred dollars out of that pension money. That's all. I didn't have enough money to survive," he said.

On Friday, he received a check for $1.7 million raised by people around the world.

He was presented the check and became very emotional.

"The first thing I have to do, obviously, after getting everything lined up and settled is go see my brother for two or three weeks," Bambas said. "I plan on doing several other things, including starting to play golf again."

Foguth Financial will be helping Bambas manage his sudden windfall of good fortune.

"He's just an everyday guy, you know, and I mean wife, kids, you know, losing his money," said Michael Foguth, president Foguth Financial. "I mean you know, and you look back, you go back fifteen years ago, he was probably unbelievably happy. Wife, kids, pension, retired, living in this beautiful community, and then boom.

"And it's kind of like this snowball effect, right? And things start to stack. But his outlook was, I'm gonna get up and do it again. He's visiting his wife's grave every day. I mean, that's I mean it's just powerful stuff that this man's doing."

Bambas retired from General Motors in 1999 with eyes on no longer working. He had served in the U.S. Army for years before getting the job at the automaker.

"In 2012 they went bankrupt and took my pension away from me," he said.

"The thing that hurt me the most was when my wife was really sick and when they took the pension, they also took the health care coverage and all but $10,000 of my life insurance," he said. "So I sold the house. Sold the property I had, and we made it through."

Related: 88-year-old Michigan vet given help from GoFundMe to retire

Bambas said his wife died seven years ago.

"She developed atrial fibrillation," he said.

Since then, he's been trying to reestablish himself. He doesn't have enough income on his own, which is why he now spends a big chunk of his week on his feet, working.

Ed said his monthly pension payout from his days working at GM is not enough to live on.

Lexi Wallace is a Meijer shopper in Brighton who has known him for the past five years and reached out and influencers Mike McKinstry and Samuel Weidenhofer, answered the call.

"I said he works every day, he's always got a smile on his face, he has the best energy and he deserves to be recognized," she said. "So I didn't think he was going to reply, and then he was like, 'I'm there.'

"So I was like freaking out. I posted it all over the local Facebook group and I'm like, he replied to my comment and then like now this. Are you kidding me?"

What's next for Ed? Well, he's got a trust with Foguth and he says he is planning to continue to work at least for the next month, just so he can get everything situated.