For the past five years, Ernest Chandler has trekked two hours to work and two hours back because he didn’t have a car.
The 53-year-old’s home in Decatur, Alabama, is about 5½ miles from his environmental cleaning job, where he drives a water truck and works 12-hour shifts seven nights a week.
Though Chandler sometimes got rides from coworkers or friends, he often found himself making the four-hour roundtrip walk in good weather and bad.
Chandler’s long commutes will now be a thing of the past after a trusted friend and co-worker decided to give him a life-changing gift: a car.
The men shared their heartwarming story with USA TODAY on Tuesday.
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Ernest Chandler trekked 5.5 miles to work because of promise
Chandler said he stuck it out at work despite his long commute because of a promise he made to a friend who was like a sister to him before her death three years ago.
He promised to always look out for her son, Brett Johnston, who lives with Chandler and stays home to take care of Johnston’s wife, who has spina bifida, and stepfather, who suffers from mini strokes.
“It was a promise I made,” Chandler told USA TODAY. “That’s what I’m doing.”
Though Chandler did have a car at various points, he said he had to sell them “in order to maintain the bills and stuff in the house.”
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