On one of the hottest days of the year Lubbock resident Katherine McLamore decided to do some yard work.
“I was trying to start my mower and it wouldn’t start,” McLamore says. “I was yanking at the cord and he’s like would you like some help with that?”
That’s when her neighbor, Willie Acy, stepped in to help.
“She looked like she was having a hard time,” Acy explains.
He got the mower working and even offered to help her trim up some trees in her front yard.
And this was the first time the neighbors had ever met.
McLamore has lived in her south Lubbock home for almost 10 years; Acy has lived around the corner for one year.
And they never even met until he stepped in to help her out.
“He just came over to help and it was so wonderful, I was almost going to cry,” McLamore says.
McLamore wanted to pay Acy for his help, but he wouldn’t take it.
All he asked for was a bottle of water.
“I was just trying to give her a helping hand,” Acy says.
“It really touched my heart that day,it was a blessing,” McLamore explains.
She was so touched by his volunteering to help, she posted all about his kindness on Facebook, and it got quite the reaction.
She says with the direction the world is going, it was something people needed to read.
“A lot of people judge or pre judge,” Acy says. “There’s good in everybody.”
McLamore agrees. “Yeah. I think there are lots of little pockets of people with different anger problems that’s surfacing right now,” she explains. “And it’s clouding how other people are seeing the human race.”
And now that simple gesture is becoming much more.
Their grandkids are now friends and they’ve also grown closer because of their love of plants and the outdoors.
“I appreciate our friendship I think I gained another friend,” Acy says.
All because a neighbor gave a helping hand and reached out to help.
“It touched a lot of us really, just his kindness,” McLamore says. “We need to come together and take down some of those walls that are out there right now.”
If you want to make a difference not only in your neighborhood but your community contact the Volunteer Center of Lubbock at (806) 747-0551.
