Beverly Thomas, 79, spent her career as a nurse looking after other people. Told in court she could be jailed over her overgrown yard, she opened her door the next morning to find strangers there ready to help.
For weeks, Beverly had been carrying the frightening prospect alone. Suffering with arthritis and tremors meant keeping up with the maintenance at her Northeast Ohio property proved nearly impossible, and a fixed income left little room to hire help.
So when she was summoned to court over the state of the yard, she feared the worst.
“I went to court and heard [the judge] say that I can be put in jail over it, making it sound like a crime,” Thomas recalled. “Then I got nervous and had trouble sleeping at night.”
After News 5 Cleveland shared her situation, people across the region started reaching out to offer help. And the next morning, there was a knock at her door.
“I walk slow because of the arthritis,” she said. “There were two people there. They said, ‘We don’t know each other, but we just showed up at the same time.’ Wow, good people at that same time, amazing and reassuring.”
One was a local attorney offering legal help and the other was Norburt Sanek, a lawn care professional who volunteered on the spot to organize a cleanup. He’d seen her story while scrolling Facebook and felt compelled to do something.
“I came from a large Catholic family,” Sanek said. “This is how I was brought up. You help neighbors, especially the elderly.”
Soon dozens of people wanted in, talking through everything from trimming overgrowth to hauling debris. The biggest job ahead is a large dead tree in the backyard.
But for a woman who spent years looking after strangers as a nurse, the reversal of fortune has hit hard – in a very positive way.
“I’m touched that people care,” Thomas said. “I know they’re out there, just didn’t know how to reach them.”
