A Single Mother Puts Aside Her Holiday Plans to Save a Stranger From a Deadly Blizzard

Blizzards are a nightmare for anyone involved, even more so for those who are mentally impaired. While local news and weather stations do all they can to keep people inside during cold stormy weather, not all know well enough to heed their warnings. 

During the deadly snowstorm in Buffalo that had already claimed 31 lives, one man was spared by a kind stranger. Joe White, who is mentally disabled, had found himself stranded outside in the storm. 

After Sha’Kyra heard a man screaming for help outside her home. She looked out and saw him being blown down the street on the morning of December 24th. She and her boyfriend immediately sprung into action. 

As part of trying to care for Joe and his injuries, they called 911. But unfortunately, they couldn’t send anyone due to the storm, so they were stuck without professional medical aid. 

In a video posted to Sha’Kyra’s Facebook on the morning of December 25th, she explained the situation to her social media friends. She had wanted to keep the situation private for the man’s sake, but needed more help caring for him. 

She explains in the video that Joe is disabled and lives in a group home. This group home was contacted, and again, due to the weather, no one could rescue Joe from her home. 

From the blow dryer on his hands, cutting a bag from his frozen grasp, and even cutting rings off his damaged fingers. The extent of his injuries was enough for her to understand that this injury is more than she could take care of. 

In the video, she begs her community and neighbors for help. While also mentioning the large group that has already tried to help in any way they can. 

As she starts replying to comments on her Facebook live, people are trying to suggest all sorts of ways to get Joe the help he desperately needs. But Sha’Kyra is at the end of her capabilities. 

She can’t carry him alone, her kids are too young, and she has no way to transport him to get help. Moreover, the ambulances and other help that said they were coming the previous night still had not shown up.

One commenter mentions that she needs to ensure his hands stay dry, especially with the gangrene that’s started. Luckily she had been doing just that. Using non-stick gauze, she had done her best to keep the skin wrapped up and dry in hopes that it would prevent further damage. 

“I was just being a helping person,” she pleads near the end of her live stream, “I don’t want to get in trouble for this.” Sha’Kyra is clearly scared for the stranger and for the situation.

“My kids are scared, they are 5, 6, and 13. They have never seen anything like this.” A traumatizing situation for everyone involved. The weather had an impact on everyone. 

One commenter must’ve mentioned calling 911, which Sha’Kyra had already tried numerous times in the last couple of days. “Call who?” she states, “I’ve called everybody, nobody is calling me.” 

In the last few minutes of her Facebook video, you can hear the little voices of her kids in the background as Sha’Kyra does her best to keep it together. The Christmas tree lit up in the background is beautiful, but just a reminder of the more pressing matter at hand. 

“I am right down the street from ECMC” a local hospital, not far from the residence they’ve been stuck inside. You can hear the sincerity in her voice as she pleads throughout the video for people to come to help this poor man. 

She ends the video by stating she needs to return phone calls she’s been receiving while on live. Sha’Kyra also goes on to thank everyone who has been trying to help. 

She ends the video by stating she needs to return phone calls she’s been receiving while on live. Sha’Kyra also goes on to thank everyone who has been trying to help. 

Sha’Kyra spent two full days caring for Joe in the best way she could and reached out to anyone and everyone she could think of. Then finally, the help came, and they could get through the storm. Eventually, Joe was transported to ECMC.

All of Sha’Kyra’s hard work and pleading with friends and strangers had worked. Finally, as the storm was wearing down, the community of people around her was finally able to get out and get them help. 

The story continues to explain that Sha’Kyra’s kindness didn’t end there. To help Joe feel safer and more comfortable with another round of new people and a scary experience overall, she took the ride with him. 

But why was Joe out alone in the storm to begin with? Especially as a mentally disabled individual. He finally told Sha’Kyra when he calmed down and warmed up that he was on the way to work. 

Joe has been an employee of North Park Theatre for nearly 40 years, so he wasn’t going to let a storm stop him from getting to work. But unfortunately, the mental disability Joe suffered kept him from understanding the storm’s severity. 

On that page, he shares that Joe, who did not understand how terrible the storm was, had set out to work. Only to become disoriented, lost, and frozen on the doorstep of Sha’Kyra’s home. 

This GoFundMe was set up to help cover Joe’s most pressing medical expenses, including a long stay in ECMC, as he hopes to recover fully. 

“We couldn’t be there for him that night in the snow, but we can be there for him now,” wrote his friend, Chris. This fundraising will ensure his friend has an easier recovery, and the online community immediately rallied for this cause. 

But Chris Dearing didn’t just stop at setting up a GoFundMe to help his friend and coworker after this horrible situation. You can also find a page he set up for the woman who stepped up to help Joe in his time of need. 

His account of the situation is shared on that second GoFundMe that he set up. “Without hesitation she put aside her family’s plans for Christmas and treated his sores the best she could.”

Chris explains that while Sha’Kyra did this without expecting a reward, she deserves one. He explains that as a hard-working young mother, she had enough stresses of her own and deserves the same support that she showed Joe.

Because of Chris’ kind words about Sha’Kyra and sharing the story of what she’s done, the GoFundMe page has quickly blown up. The original goal amount had been set the same as for Joe, and has grown just the same. 

Many other pages and news sites quickly picked up on this story after the deadly storm devastated the entire Buffalo area. A compassionate tale of what could’ve been a horrific ending was just the uplifting news the community needed at that moment was nice.