Greg Smith from Orlando is a 25 year-old personal trainer from Orlando, Florida who has been spending his free time helping a homeless woman named Amy Joe learn to read. Now, thanks in large part to his efforts, Amy Joe has a place of her very own!

“I’ve got a number of people working on trying to find her a place where she can stay for the rest of her life,” Greg previously wrote on Facebook. “Hopefully a place where she can live and work.”

Greg would notice Amy Joe every day as he walked to work, and it struck him that despite the fact that she was homeless, she never begged for money. Instead, she would say a friendly hello to him whenever he passed, so he stopped one day and sat down to talk to her. As he learned her story, he realized she’d been dealt a tough hand in life, and the two started getting lunch together every week.

“For the last few weeks each Tuesday, Amy Joe and I meet at the corner of Pine Street and S. Orange Ave in downtown Orlando,” Greg wrote on Facebook. “Each day for about a week I saw Amy Joe at this corner, and she never asked for money… she simply said ‘Good morning Sir, have a great day. God Bless!!’ and smiled. I wear a suit to work every day, so I get asked for a lot of money quite often downtown… but never once from Amy Jo.”

“Every Tuesday, Amy Joe and I now have lunch together. For 30 min to an hour I get to hear how positive she is even though she really has nothing,” he continued. “Last week Amy Joe kind of dropped a bomb on me…she cannot read.”

“Amy Joe does not smoke, drink, have a drug addiction, or anything to that nature. She simply just has never had anyone teach her how to read. She told me how hard it was for her to find work not being able to read. She began to tell me any money that she can collect she uses to check out library books that help with learning to read instead of buying FOOD,” Greg lamented. “This crushed me!!! She would rather learn to read to maybe find a job than eat!!!”

“I have been blessed with two amazing parents and a family that has always had resources to provide me with anything I wanted to do. Amy Joe has not. So now not only do Amy Joe and I sit and have lunch, I’m teaching her to read. I rent one library book a week, and we read it together Tuesday, and she practices on her own throughout the rest of the week,” Greg explained. “This post is in no way to make anyone feel sorry for Amy Joe or brag about me doing something for someone less fortunate. I wanted to share this because maybe this can lead to someone helping another person.”

“There are a lot of people out there like Amy Joe, not all are hungry, homeless, or hurt. Some could be your family or friends,” Greg said. “Helping someone could be as easy as saying hello and smiling. I have been fortunate enough in my finances that I can take care of Amy Joe, so that’s what I’m going to do.

One day, Greg told Amy Joe that he had a surprise for her.

“I said, ‘We’re gonna take a little walk’ since the hotel was three or four blocks away from the restaurant we were at,” he recalled.

Amy Joe could not help but cry when she realized where they were headed.

Greg has been stopping by every day since then with food and donations for Amy Joe!

“She’s excited,” he added. “She said, ‘I’m so happy that we met’ and hugged me and said, ‘I love you.”

This just goes to show how taking some time to help someone else can change their life forever! SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!