Hundreds of bikers surprise veteran with only months to live, fulfilling his dying wish
Bob Money, a Vietnam veteran, was told by doctors at the veterans hospital that his heart was failing. According to his nephew, Richard Money, his heart is functioning at 15 to 20 percent, and Bob has only a couple of months left to live.
The 77-year-old vet told his nephew that he’d like visitors at his Wahoo, Neb., assisted living home. “He always wanted people to visit him in Wahoo,” Richard and his wife, Linda, told WOWT News.
At one point, according to KETV, Bob asked his nephew, “You got biker friends, don’t you?” and Richard replied, “Sure I do.”
“He said, ‘Could you bring a few of them up? I’d like to have you guys come up and visit me,’” Richard said.
Richard and Linda quickly started to plan how they would bring motorcyclists to visit Bob. Bob assumed that the pair would be able to get maybe 20 bikers, and that would be plenty. Pulling the motorcade together in just six days, Richard and Linda put the word out to their friends and hoped for 100 people to come surprise Bob.
Instead, more than 300 bikers from five states showed up on Sunday, some coming from as far as South Dakota.
“We can’t express to him just how much his service meant to the world and to our family,” Linda said. “We can hopefully send him off with a really great powerful memory.”
For the motorcade, Bob was stationed outside of his assisted living facility, assuming that he’d see his family and a few bikers. When the parade of hundreds of bikers began riding past him, Bob was speechless. “Something like this, you know, [it’s] like in the movies,” he finally said.
“Supporting our veterans is very important — especially our Vietnam vets that were treated so poorly at first,” Kevin Dubbs, who traveled from North Bend, Neb., said.
Bob’s brother, Charlie Money, a decorated Vietnam veteran himself, rode along as his brother led his parade away from town — at 6 mph on his personal ride, his wheelchair.
“It will help his family have an absolutely positive, wonderful last memory of Bob,” Linda said. “For me, it’s like we’ve been able to give him a last gift.”
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