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Samuel Weidenhofer still can’t quite believe the whirlwind of the past week

The Australian creator introduced the world to 88-year-old Michigan veteran Ed Bambas in a video that highlighted the longtime Meijer supermarket cashier

The video quickly sparked an outpouring of support. Weidenhofer tells PEOPLE he’s been “blown out of the water”

Samuel Weidenhofer still can’t quite believe the whirlwind of the past week.

The Australian creator introduced the world to 88-year-old Michigan veteran Ed Bambas in a TikTok video that highlighted the longtime Meijer supermarket cashier.

Bambas, who retired from General Motors in 1999, returned to work nearly a decade ago after losing his wife to a long illness, and around the same time, his employer cut his pension, he told loca

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