WACO, TX — James Macwhorter is known as the neighborhood handyman, he'll fix just about anything for his neighbors and he'll do their yard work too. Why? Well, because he's a good neighbor.
Macwhorter loves talking to people and in wanting to love where he lived he needed to love his neighbors. So he'd go out and get to know them, in the meantime helping with anything they needed around the house.
"Everybody in this neighborhood, the 3 or 4 block radius, I pretty much know them," Macwhorter said.
His next-door neighbor of 20 years, Carmen Merritt had a few things she would need help with from time to time.
"One time my window broke, anything that anyone needs, he is there," Merritt said.
It wasn't until the other night when her dog would not stop barking while outback, Merritt went to go see what it was and she noticed her dog barking at Macwhorter's roof.
"I saw something scurry into the roof and then I really noticed and observed the state of that area and I thought this is not okay," Merritt said.
So, she took to the social media app, Nextdoor, asking the Waco community to donate or help in any way they can to fix Macwhorter's roof.
Merritt couldn't believe how bad it was, especially because he was so handy with fixing other people's home issues.
The community came flooding in with all sorts of donations. The roof is being fixed and other home improvements are being made. On top of that money was donated to provide a free year's worth of bug extermination services.
"You just don't really know how much it's appreciated, especially when you get to a certain age. You think you still know how to do it all you want to do it all, but you can't," Macwhorter said.
Macwhorter believes it's by the grace of God he was blessed with such great neighbors. He also thinks by being a good neighborhood those favors will be returned.
"That's what I always believe one thing can lead to another, and that's the way it's done," Macwhorter said.
