HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Be kind.
Those are two words that have a simple meaning and yet often they are some of the hardest to embrace and live by.
However, two Tampa neighbors are showing it costs nothing to live by that motto and are proving it pays dividends.
Valerie Vivirito moved into her quaint Tampa home earlier in the year.
As a first-time homeowner, there was a lot she wasn't expecting. Especially a neighbor like Willie Thurman, or Mr. Willie, as his neighbors refer to him by.
"His thing was, 'I am going to help you out with your neighborhood if you need like your house, your lawn and any kind of stuff.' It’s a nice balance. I wouldn’t want any other neighbor, and if I do ever move, they have a very high standard of what they have to do as a neighbor," Valerie said.
Not soon after Valerie moved into her home, Willie asked if he could do some yard work for her. Her home camera caught him in action. When she asked how much she could pay him, he would have nothing of it.
What began as a simple hello turned into a 'thank you for being a nice neighbor' card, and then came the unexpected yard work and a snowball of kindness.
Willie said, "I knew she was new, and I wanted to make her feel welcomed, and I said welcome to the neighborhood, and from that it’s history."
Willie, at 80 years young, doesn’t have much family who lives nearby and as a transplant from New York, Valerie is starting fresh in a new city.
The two may have forty years between them, but Valerie said that's an advantage. It's pure wisdom.
Their morning greetings are now daily check-ins, weekly meals, and baked treats, but more importantly, for Willie, it’s a new sense of belonging.
"It added some years of happiness to my life, and I can’t say how many because I just felt like, why am I here? You know, I don’t do anything. I just here, but I look forward to a good morning Mr. Willie," Willie said. "I wouldn’t trade her unless I could get two for one, but otherwise, I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”
The feeling couldn’t be any more mutual for Valerie.
