Phoenix man lets roommate live rent-free, helps her with doctor appointments

PHOENIX (Surprise Squad) -- People who know Joe describe him as a very generous guy. He lets his roommate, Aurora, stay in his apartment and never charges rent. He also happily takes her to her doctor appointments. Aurora wanted to thank him for all that he’s done for her, so she recently reached out to the Arizona’s Family Surprise Squad, and on a recent morning, the 3TV’s Scott Pasmore knocked unexpectedly at their door.

“I’m Scott Pasmore from Arizona’s Family Surprise Squad,” Pasmore said after Joe opened the door. “What’s going on?”

“Not much,” Joe said in disbelief. “We always watch Channel 3 in the morning.”

“We wanted to come over and talk to you,” Pasmore smiled. “We hear you do amazing things for your roommate, Aurora. So we just wanted to talk to you about that, do a good story.”

Aurora and Joe sat down with Scott by their apartment’s pool and explained how they first met.

“I worked at the bank, and he would call the bank and I would always help on his account,” Aurora said. “We did that for 20 years, just talked over the phone, never met face to face.”

“Really? Then how did you meet?” Pasmore asked.

“I was going through chemo, and we met at the 5 & Diner,” Aurora said. “I can’t do a whole lot of stuff because of neuropathy and pain in my hands from arthritis, so he does everything.”

“So, you live there, and he runs you around town and he doesn’t charge you a penny?”

“Never. No.”

“Why do you think he does that?”

“It’s out of love,” Aurora replied. “He has a lot of compassion, and he works hard. He’s a musician. He practically gives me all his tips, and we argue about that, and I want to pay rent. I was taught and raised to pay where you live.”

“So you saw Surprise Squad, and you thought what?” Pasmore asked.

“I just thought of him automatically, and minutes after I watched it, I was typing the message. I just wanted to acknowledge him in a big way.”

When it was it was his turn to speak, Joe immediately talked about Aurora. “She’s an amazing person. So, all the good things she says about me are just reflections of who she is. She’s made me better in a lot of ways. We believe in God and trust in God, and He always seems to provide in amazing ways.” Joe went on to mention that he has some heart arrhythmia and is getting ready for a procedure that will address that soon.

“As I mentioned, we are Arizona’s Family Surprise Squad, sponsored by your Valley Toyota Dealers,” Pasmore said as he handed Joe an envelope. “And we would like to give you this gift for being a good person and helping Aurora so much over the years, and I think you could use this.”

“Holy shamoly,” Joe gasped after opening the envelope and seeing that he was being given $3,000 from the Surprise Squad. “Wow, thank you so much.”

“For you to do whatever you want with that,” Pasmore said. “Since you’ve helped her out so much over the years and never asked for anything back, we just wanted to give you that gift. How handy will that come in?”

“Very handy. Very, very handy,” Joe answered. “It will help with a lot of major things that we were wondering how in the world will we take care of, with car repairs and rent that’s going to be going up very soon. We’re facing a rent increase like everybody else. Now the TV’s going to be glued to Channel 3,” Joe said with a laugh.