By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – In her 78 years alive, Alabaster resident Carolyn Ledbetter had never gotten a surprise like she received on the morning of Oct. 15.

As she walked down from her front porch to greet fellow Alabaster resident Suzi Daniels, she was astonished by what Daniels had to tell her.

“We have such a great community. They really went above and beyond,” Daniels said as she told Ledbetter about the fundraiser she established to help Ledbetter recover from a recent theft.

On Sept. 22, Ledbetter was preparing to have her son-in-law, Donnie Snow, till a plot of land in front of her house in preparation for a garden when the family noticed their new Husqvarna tiller was missing. Ledbetter had just purchased the tiller from the Alabaster Lowe’s store a few months prior, and was still making payments on it.

After filing a police report, Ledbetter issued a plea for the thief to return the stolen item, and promised to drop all charges if they did so. As of Oct. 15, the stolen tiller had not been returned, but the Alabaster community more than made up for it.

Daniels established a Gofundme.com page to solicit $900 in donations to purchase Ledbetter a new tiller and pay off her debt on the stolen one. The fundraiser hit its goal in 17 hours.

“I felt upset about the whole thing. I have a mother-in-law who is a few years older than Mrs. Ledbetter, and she does a lot of gardening too. She relies on that for her food, just like Mrs. Ledbetter does,” Daniels said. “But I can’t take credit for this. That goes to all the people who donated and shared the Gofundme page. I want her to know that people in Alabaster, they really care.”

After the fundraiser hit its mark on Oct. 14, Daniels traveled to Lowe’s, where she explained the situation to store employees. As a result, Lowe’s knocked $50 off the price of the new tiller and donated a cable and lock to help secure the tiller on Ledbetter’s property.

On Oct. 15, Daniels and her husband, Tommy, surprised Ledbetter at her house by presenting her with the new tiller and enough money to pay off what she owed on the old one.

Ledbetter couldn’t hold back the tears.

“I wasn’t expecting this. I don’t know what to do. I’ve never had that kind of loss or this outpouring of care,” Ledbetter said, noting she had been walking all over her property the same morning while checking to see if the thief had returned the stolen tiller.

The surprise came one day after members of her church, Siluria Baptist, had offered to help her pay off her debt on the stolen tiller.

“I told them ‘I can handle it. We’ve got missions we’re working on, and that is more important,’” Ledbetter said. “This is going to help me donate more to that (feed the world mission program).”

Ledbetter said she now plans to have her son-in-law till a portion of her yard to make way for collared greens and turnips before winter weather arrives.

“This is a miracle, it’s a miracle to me. I know we’ve got a lot of good people here,” Ledbetter said. “I wish I was big enough to give everyone a hug.”