Cop Makes Homeless Couple’s Dream Come True

A Florida police officer helped a homeless couple find happiness, despite the overwhelming hurdles they faced.

Rocky Bartlett and Evelyn Adams have been together for 22 years. But for three of those years, they lived in the woods outside Tampa, Florida, in a makeshift encampment.

Their misfortune began when their son died in a car crash.

“It’s hard. I wouldn’t want anybody to go through losing a child ’cause it’s hard,” says Adams “I lost my baby … that’s just my baby.”

Despite being a couple for so long, the two never formally tied the knot. They couldn’t afford the $93 marriage license fee.

That’s when Officer Daniel McDonald stepped in, reports WFLA. McDonald works as the homeless liaison officer for the Tampa Police and was assisting the couple in moving to a new home.

When he learned that the couple wanted to get married, the officer decided to go above and beyond the line of duty and make their wish come true.

The local media picked up on the story and volunteers stepped up from around Tampa to help with the wedding.

“People they’ve never met, who’ve never met them,” said McDonald. “We had a wedding venue contact me and they wanna host the wedding in Dover and it’s all-inclusive. They’re going to do everything. They’ve had an outpouring of support.”

Owner of Cross Creek Rang, Bonnie McSherry, offered to hold the ceremony in her venue for free, according to Independent Journal Review.

“It has been so moving to see how excited they are and it has been as much a gift for our staff, myself, my husband and our staff as much as it is for them,” McSherry said.

Others in the community donated food, flowers, a tux for the groom and a gown for the bride.

“This is a dream come true and everybody that has did all this it has just been a dream come true,” Adams exclaimed. “It is awesome that all these people come together for these two homeless old people.”

Bartlett said, “We look forward to a new life, to start over, that’s about all I can say, it is going to be a start over.”

The couple are excited to start a new chapter in their lives and are set to live in a duplex in northern Tampa. Thanks to the Housing and Urban Development Continuum of Car program and Officer McDonald’s help, it looks like they’ll be living happily ever after.

“We do have a lot of challenges working with the homeless, so it is nice to have a victory like this, it is nice to see them happy and starting a new chapter in their life,” McDonald said.

Sources: WFLA, Independent Journal Review / Photo credit: WFLA