Retired Kansas farmer donates mask to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo with this heartfelt letter

A retired Kansas farmer donated a face mask for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to pass along to medical workers in the state ravaged by the coronavirus.

“This is humanity at its best,” Cuomo tweeted with a photo of a heartfelt letter from the man.

The farmer, later identified as 71-year-old Dennis Ruhnke, from northeast Kansas writes about his diabetic wife, who has one lung and “occasional problems with her remaining lung,” and his concern for her health during the pandemic.

“We are in our 70s now, and frankly, I am afraid for her,” he wrote.

Despite all this, the man donated an unused N95 respirator mask for the governor to give to a nurse or doctor. It’s one of five masks that he has for immediate family.

“You want to talk about a snapshot of humanity?” Cuomo said during a news conference Friday. “You have five masks. What do you do? You keep all five? Do you hide the five masks? Do you keep them for yourselves or others? No, you send one mask one mask to New York to help a nurse or a doctor. How beautiful is that? I mean how selfless is that? How giving is that?”

Here’s the letter from the retired farmer.

Cuomo’s post quickly received thousands of retweets and hundreds of replies with an outpouring of appreciation to the farmer and his wife.

The Associated Press Contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 1:55 PM.