Good Guy John Cena Shows Love for Retired Veteran Amid Coronavirus Chaos
Amid the ongoing worldwide health crisis, John Cena did not forget to spread kindness and showed a kind gesture to a veteran who he just met.
On Monday, John tried to bring joy to a retired veteran he bumped into at a Publix supermarket in Land O' Lakes, Florida, by paying his grocery bill. In addition, he even posed for a selfie with the hero!
The niece of the Vietnam veteran Charles "Bud" Phillips posted the story on Reddit and acknowledged the random surprised that the 42-year-old professional wrestler did.
In the said post, the caption read, "John Cena paid for my uncle's groceries." Below the text was a snap of the vet with John.
John Cena paid for my Uncle’s groceries! from r/pics
To unfold the story more, Charles' daughter Stefanie Philips spoke with Entertainment Tonight where she also called John as the "kindest man" to everyone.
According to Stefanie, her dad was standing in the queue of the checkout line behind him. The vet chatted with the "Playing With Fire" actor, and in the end, John thanked him for his service upon seeing his SeaBees hat.
"John secretly paid for all of his groceries. My dad didn't even know until he was being checked out, and the cashier said, 'John paid for your groceries.' The bill was around $100," she shared.
Well-Appreciated Act
In the same interview, Stefanie went on and shared how the random act of kindness made her father feel so recognized.
The daughter told how her father is now a retired Vietnam veteran and a widow. She added that she and Charles lost the family's matriarch after almost 50 years of marriage.
"So, as you can imagine, not too much these days make him smile as big as he did in that picture," she said, referring to the selfie with John. "A simple act of kindness brightened his day. Along with his family seeing that smile on his face!"
Moreover, Stefanie mentioned that seeing his father smile again is what made the picture special.
Currently, Charles is a "stay-home, cook-from-scratch" kind of guy. Since cooking is one of his past times right now, he needs to go to the grocery store every now and then to grab the ingredients.
Luckily, he bumped into John recently, and it became one of the most special moments in his life.
While it seemed to be a random meet-up, she added that John often visits the store and is always showing and doing good deeds to everyone.
Currently, the Reddit post received over 147,000 upvotes and 2,900 comments. After it became viral, more Reddit users reached out to them, saying that their relatives, fathers or grandfathers, used to serve in the same unit as Charles.
Because of the post, it became the bridge to reconnect the former comrades and even exchanged photos.
Fans Applauded John
Though this is not the first time he extended his hand to help someone, netizens shared the other kind acts that the actor did in the past.
"I'm not a wrestling fan, but John Cena is a real class act, man. At the end of last year, he'd fulfilled over 600 Make-a-Wish Foundation dreams for kids," one fan said.
"It's funny growing up this guy was always making scary faces in a wrestling outfit, flexing his GI Joe muscles," another Reddit user wrote. "Now I see him doing things like this and making cute kid's movies, smiling all sweet."
