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She saw a familiar face walking to work in the dark and turned her car around. What started as one ride has grown into a routine and a friendship.
MACON, Ga. — Keith Tidwell and Debbie Rhoden met at a Kroger in Macon, Georgia, where Tidwell works the night shift in the produce section.
They say they didn’t speak much, or even know each others’ names, until a year and a half ago.
Rhoden says she was driving and saw Tidwell making his nearly five-mile walk to work, which he says takes him roughly an hour and 45 minutes from his home in Jones County.
One day Rhoden decided to stop after recognizing him from the store.
“I said that looked like the young guy that works at Kroger, so I turned around, went back and got him,” Rhoden said.
Tidwell says walking or biking is the only way he can get to or from work, and it’s often a dark and dangerous trip coming home. That all changed when Rhoden pulled over and Tidwell decided to take a chance.
“I don’t really know her that much, but I decided to take a chance,” Tidwell said.
That first ride was a year and a half ago, and now Rhoden picks Tidwell up several times a week.
Rhoden says her son, Carlos Hill, died a few months before she offered Tidwell that first ride. She says her son loved helping others, and says she can feel Carlos in this act of kindness.
“I think he would have wanted me to pick him up and take him to work, especially when he knew how far he has to walk at night,” Rhoden said.
Now, after over a year of rides, the carpool is a routine. Tidwell says he feels safer and the relationship has grown from strangers to friends.
“It’s pretty nice. She’s nice to me, and I mean I learned that she has a brother,” Tidwell said.
Rhoden says she’s grateful she pulled over that day, and says she had no hesitation letting a stranger into her car and her life.
“I was not nervous at all because I felt like I was doing a good thing, taking him to work, get him to work safe, so hey, I wasn’t nervous,” Rhoden said.
Tidwell is working on earning his drivers license, but the two agree they’ll stay close no matter who’s driving.
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