How Far Would You Go to Mow...?

…someone else’s lawn? One pensioner in St Petersburg, Florida, walked two and a half miles to mow a couple’s lawn

after they hired him to cut the grass every week. It all started when Robert Norton drove past an elderly man pushing a lawn mower around the same yard every week. Norton decided to ask the man if he would mow their lawn as well, and 83-year-old John Joyce obliged, as cutting grass was his hobby and a way to earn a little spare cash. Every week Joyce turned up without fail, until one week he did not appear. Not knowing what had happened to Mr Joyce, the Nortons hired someone else to do the job and thought no more about it until three months later when Mr Joyce turned up on their doorstep.

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John Joyce had been ill and in hospital for those three months, and when he had returned home his twenty-year-old truck had broken down. Mr Joyce tried to get his truck fixed, but it ended up worse than before and he could not afford to replace it. The lack of transportation did not deter Mr Joyce, however, as he was still determined to do the job he loved and had been hired to do, so he walked the two and a half miles to mow the Norton’s lawn, pushing his lawn mower all the way there and back.

Nikki and Robert Norton did not initially know that Mr Joyce, at the ripe age of 83, was pushing his lawnmower all that way just to cut their grass, but when they found out they decided to start a crowd funding campaign to raise enough money for a new truck. In less than a month the couple had raised over $13,000, which was enough to buy a truck, insurance and a new lawn mower for Mr Joyce, who said he felt “like a millionaire”. Now John Joyce can continue to pursue his hobby in comfort for a long time yet.

In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, residents from all over the city are coming together with the residents of Oak Park Village to maintain and improve Parkview and Panther Playground, both well-loved outdoor spaces for the city. Former residents travel from across the city to use their lawn mowers and other garden tools to help with the upkeep of the parks, organised by the Oak Park Community Association and the Green Country Lions Club. Donations and grants have helped pay for new items, such as a 60-inch zero-turn ride-on lawn mower for the volunteers to use, and a local lawn mower specialist has offered to provide all maintenance of the machine free of charge. The new lawn mower will be a great help in keeping the grass neat, as there are a lot of trees to go around, and the grassed area is sizable; to use a push-along lawn mower would take all day.

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, two police officers took over lawn mower duties for a disabled man after they saw him attempting to mow the lawn from his wheelchair. Officer Joe Hutson saw the man struggling with the task and immediately took over, while his partner John Khillah rushed off to get a leaf blower and weed trimmer to get the job done to the highest standard, which really is going beyond the call of duty. Another US police officer was spotted pushing a citizen’s lawn mower recently after he saw her cutting the grass in hot sun with her baby on her back. Wishing to spare her the task and get her baby out of the sun, the officer stopped his car and finished mowing the lawn for her. Some people really will go the extra mile to mow the lawn, how far would you be prepared to go?