Bridget Stevens, a busy mom of two small sons and the wife of a soldier, recognised there was an issue with her furnace when she went home to a frigid house one day. Normally, she would have turned to her husband for assistance with such repairs, but alas, Bobby was gone abroad with the National Guard. Nonetheless, Bridget texted him for assistance.
Bobby attempted to solve the issue over the phone, but it did not seem to work. Bridget phoned Betlyn Heating and Cooling in Moon Township, Pennsylvania after Bobby’s solutions failed to solve the problem. Fortunately, Paul Betlyn, the company’s owner, responded and was delighted to be of assistance, calmly offering several recommendations over the phone.
When none of Paul’s suggestions worked, the kind-hearted, 65-year-old repairman travelled to Bridget’s Pittsburgh-area house to inspect the furnace personally, despite the fact that he had recently undergone a knee replacement and wasn’t allowed to be performing any work. But the repairman became preoccupied, and he and Bridget soon began up a discussion.
As he was working on the furnace, they got to talking about Bobby and the deployment, she said. When he was finished, she was a little concerned about how much it would cost. He gave her the slip in this photo, which Bridget posted on Facebook. When she read the message, she was genuinely astonished:
She had mentioned in passing that she had tried to figure it out with her husband; however, since he’s deployed and couldn’t see it, he wouldn’t know what to do, Bridget added. When Paul learned that Bobby had been deployed, he decided to offer Bridget a “deployment discount” in order to honor her husband for his service. Bridget was speechless when he gave her the bill.
Instead of charging her the $150 service call fee, Paul wrote that her total was just $1, yet the task was really absolutely free of charge. When she tried to give him any money at all, he said that the $1 was a joke, and to thank her husband for his service, Bridget, who was moved by the selfless gesture of generosity, recounted.
Bridget thought Paul’s service went above and beyond. She expressed that she felt totally overwhelmed and in astonishment when Paul gave the slip. She didn’t know what to say and was still struggling to find the words to truly express her gratitude. Mr. Betlyn, on the other hand, did not stop there.
Following his meeting with Bridget, Paul established the “Military Deployment Kisses Fund” to gather funds to transport families abroad to connect with loved ones during long deployments. Paul noted in the GoFundMe campaign description that Bridget’s deployed husband only gets two four-day passes per year, forcing Bridget and other families like her to go abroad to visit their husbands.
This is obviously not inexpensive or something that every family can afford, but Paul wanted to assist. They are raising funds to send these families overseas to visit their loved ones during their long deployments. At the moment, their ultimate objective is to send families like hers from every state, Paul stated. He also raised about $5,000 in three days. It also did not slow down. Over $17,000 was soon raised. However, Paul Betlyn believes that he is not a hero.
He is not the hero here, as Paul pointed out. The deployed are the heroes, he said, adding that he was only paying it forward and carrying on a family heritage. During the Great Depression, his grandfather was a milkman, and many times he’d go to the door, and the woman didn’t have any money for milk. But there was a baby sobbing in the background. As a result, he’d place the milk on the table, Paul recounted. And when he heard Bridget’s husband was deployed, he put the milk on the table.
