Garage sales happen every Saturday morning in most towns in America, they aren’t that unusual.  But these three men in Johnstown, PA shared a heartbreaking tale.

Ed Sheets and David Dunkleberger picked out a few treasures and paid the guy holding the garage sale, Willie Davis, 66, for what they wanted.

Davis had a favor to ask the two, it was simple…to spread the word about his weekly yard sales.

“If you know of anybody else interested,” he told them, “I’m trying to sell all my stuff to pay for a funeral.”

“Whose?” the men asked.

“Mine,” said Davis.

Davis is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the Navy from 1970-76, he now has late-stage squamous cell carcinoma.

Squamous cell carcinoma (or SCC) is a common type of skin cancer and kills 15,000 Americans every year.

The one thing he was trying to do was reach the goal of paying for his own funeral.  The vet wanted to be buried beside his parents in Culpepper, Virginia but the goal seemed unattainable.

Davis told the men his case is terminal, and that his only goal now was to finance his own funeral

The only thing Davis wanted was to be buried beside his parents in a Culpepper, Virginia cemetery, but that final goal seemed out of reach for the struggling vet.

Sheets felt compelled to help Davis in some way.

“He’s done a lot serving our country,” he said, “so we wanted to kind of return the favor to him so that, again, his last days could be a little less hectic, a little more peaceful for him.”

The two gentlemen set up a fundraiser for Davis, hoping to earn at least $5,000 for his funeral expenses.

“We’ve all thought our lives were bad and we are going [through] rough times, but imagine worrying about selling all of your belongings before you pass away, just so you can be buried with your parents.”

The fundraiser page has now quickly raised more than $27,000, surpassing the original goal of $5000. 

Davis’ asked that any money not used for his funeral be donated to another struggling veteran.

“I never expected somebody to come along like that,”

In fact, long before his funeral was fully funded, when the fundraiser had earned just $475, Davis made a very sweet observation.

“I’m going to miss life because there are people like that, people that are willing to help somebody.”