John Knight was homeless and living out of his car until he found the Gowan family.
They took him in and helped him out this past winter.
"It was scary. You get scared and afraid somebody's going to shoot at you and stuff,” he said. “I spent most of my time in a Walmart parking lot."
Fast forward a few months and now he's got a permanent place at Magnolia Manor apartments thanks to some Good Samaritans.
Their picture sits on the shelf.
"It was a good day once I met the Gowans because they were the ones that helped me when I was living out of my car,” he said.
They also helped get him into Magnolia Manor. It falls under HUD affordable housing, so John qualified.
With a projected $16 million deficit looming over next year's budget, Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert's had to make a lot of cuts to put together a balanced budget. But among the cuts, he is actually proposing to add 96,000 of funding to a new outside agency.
"It's like being at your own home, but it's not your own home, you're renting it. It’s peaceful and I'm up as high as I can get without dying and going to heaven," he chuckled.
He found a job too -- it pays dividends in satisfaction.
"All of these roses have been trimmed and these have regrown since I trimmed them. This is the first time I ever trimmed roses in my life," he said.
A guy now cracking jokes and at ease in his surroundings is a far cry from being alone and scared.
"Never give up," John said confidently.
As for the Gowans, the Red Cross plans to honor them Thursday morning for their caring and compassion at a special breakfast meeting in Macon.