CHURCH POINT, La. (KLFY) — Every month, KLFY News 10 partners with Bob Giles and Giles Automotive to spotlight local residents who can pay it forward. In this story, we meet a young man who pays it forward to his grandmother’s late friend and her family.

We met Brandon Miller and explained to him that we were filming a Pay It Forward story. 

Bob Giles explained, “I have an envelope here with 10 $100 bills. It’s $1,000 so if you can think of someone that you know… it can’t be a relative… Someone you know that could use $1,000 that we could go surprise right now, then I’ll pay it forward to you so you can pay it forward to them. Can you think of someone?”

Brandon said, “It’s a friend of my grandmother’s. Her name is Norma. She’s not doing too well. She had a stroke recently and her family I assume would probably need it.”

Brandon called his grandmother, Bonnie, to try to get in touch with her friend, Norma Richard. We later found out Norma was in the hospital. Brandon then reached out to her husband, Paul Richard.

“Hey, Mr. Paul,” said Brandon. “I got this thing for Mrs. Norma and was wondering where you’re at right now and I’m going to drop it off.”

Paul answered, “We’re at the hospital in Church Point.”

Brandon told Paul he had a surprise for his wife, Norma. We then headed to Acadia St. Landry Hospital in Church Point to surprise Paul Richard. When he immediately saw us all walk up to him, he knew what the surprise was all about.

“Hi, good morning, Paul, we have a surprise for you. I’m Sylvia Masters with KLFY TV and this is Bob Giles with Giles Automotive, and we have a program called Pay It Forward. Any chance you’ve seen this?” 

Paul exclaimed, “Yes.”

“That’s what we’re doing today. We met Brandon randomly in the parking lot and we went up to him and we asked him if he could think of someone to help pay it forward to and he immediately thought of his grandmother’s friend, your wife, Mrs. Norma, and told us how she’s here in the hospital and has been through a lot and that she and you deserve it and Bob will explain what he has.”

Bob Giles added, “I have an envelope that has some money in it which I’m going to pay it forward to Brandon so that Brandon can pay it forward to you so go ahead and open it up and count it out and see what it is.”

With tears in his eyes, Paul said, “I didn’t expect this. $1,000. Thank y’all very much.”

“We met Brandon in the parking lot, and he immediately thought of you and your wife,” said Bob Giles.

“Thank y’all very much. This wasn’t expected. My wife is very sick right now. She’s very ill. It’s a hard time right now,” explained Paul.

When we shot this story, Paul was telling us about his wife, Norma Richard, who was very sick in the hospital. Four days later on Aug. 25, Norma passed away in Lafayette. Paying it forward to her husband was a story we all will never forget.

Norma’s obituary can be found here.