Corvette Owner Drive 92-Year-Old in His Car (Exclusive)

• Delino Barash was shopping for a new mattress when he noticed an elderly woman sitting next to him
• The woman started asking him questions, and noted she’d seen him driving a Corvette
• Not much later, she asked him if he’d be willing to take her husband, 92, on a drive

Delino Barash was shopping for a new mattress when he noticed an elderly woman sitting next to him. The woman started asking him questions, and noted how she had seen him driving a Corvette.

Barash, who lives in Washington Township, Mich., shared the full backstory of his car with her, explaining why it meant so much to him. He told her that he inherited the car from his brother, Donavan, who died last year. As he shared the story, he noticed her eyes welling up with tears.

“Then she told me that it would make her husband so happy if I could take him for a ride when I was done in the store,” Barash recalls exclusively to PEOPLE. “I told her, ‘Yes, of course. I’ll meet you guys outside as soon as I’m done in here.’ ”

He continues, “I agreed to take her husband for a ride because I know my brother would have done the exact same thing.”

Not long after, Barash finished up at the store and went outside to meet the woman and her husband, who had been waiting in their car, parked next to his. He approached them and told them he was ready for the ride. The woman kept thanking him for being so kind.

Then, the man got into the car, and they set off.

“As soon as I pulled out, he kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this is real,’ and repeated it over and over,” Barash says. “As we got onto the main road, he said, ‘Oh my God, this is my dream car,’ and he kept saying that too.”

“During the ride, I asked him, ‘How does it feel being your age and riding in a car like this?’ ” Barash continues. “He kept repeating that it had always been his dream to own a car like this, and that I had made his entire year by taking him for this ride. He asked me what I did for a living, and I told him, ‘This is my brother’s car, but he’s in heaven now.’ He started tearing up, and then I told him, ‘The only reason I agreed to take you for this ride is because I know my brother would have done the same.’ ”

Barash ended up taking him on a four-mile, round-trip drive. When the two eventually made it back to the store parking lot, the man’s wife was sitting in her car waiting for them.

As the men got out of the car, his wife walked up to them, gave Barash a hug, and continued to thank him. She then offered him $10 for gas, but Barash declined, saying, “Keep your money, I don’t want it!” Despite his refusal, the woman insisted and tossed the money into his car.

Then, she brought out a notebook from her car and asked for his name and number. Barash gave her his number, and she responded, “I’m going to take you out for dinner!”

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Since Barash is big into social media, he thought it would be cool to share the experience online. Afterward, he posted about it on his TikTok account. The video quickly went viral, amassing more than 8.7 million views and 9,000 comments, including one message from a woman who said that the people in the video were her grandma and grandpa..  

For Barash, the attention felt like a sign from his brother in heaven.

“People started commenting, ‘You’re God’s child,’ and ‘You deserve to be rich’ because of how kind I was to make this man’s year. Now, tons of kids my age would’ve said no, but I was just going off what I know my brother would have done in this situation.”

“The love I received on all my social media platforms was crazy and made me feel like I made my brother 100 times happier in heaven,” he adds. “I would love to see more genuine people do the same, whether it’s on- or off-camera, as I did.”