Roman was 4 years old, and every morning he stood by the door of his home in Concord, North Carolina, waiting for someone to greet.
Ever since his parents divorced and his father moved away, loneliness had settled inside him. His grandparents lived far away, his mother Anna Butzloff worked, and he filled that void by greeting the garbage collector, the Amazon delivery driver, any neighbor who passed in front of his house. His mother did not even know many of them.
One day, retired neighbor Wade Folger, who lived next door, returned his greeting and came over to chat. Then he began inviting him to his house. Other neighbors did the same, and without planning it, Roman became the thread that brought the whole block together: he invited them to his swimming competitions, his soccer games, and his preschool. His mother now knew whom to call for every birthday.
Years later, those same neighbors who had never spoken to one another greet each other on the street, just as he taught them without saying a word.