TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - “Always giving you good advice. Making sure you’re okay. Asking you how you’re doing today. Not just rhetoric. I believe he really means that when he asks you, how are you today?” says Glandoy Hill, III of Alfred Dailey.
Dailey’s store, Dailey’s Dis ‘N’ Dat variety store has sat on the corner of Fernwood and Forest for 46 years. All that time, Dailey has been inspiring the children of the neighborhood to be their best selves. Today, those children are returning, all grown up, to pay tribute to the man who touched so many of their lives.
Mr. D, as he’s fondly called, runs the store nine hours a day, seven days a week, and he hasn’t taken a day off in at least 20 years.
“We like to give people their flowers, when they’re no longer around to smell them, so we want to make sure he gets his flowers when he’s still around to smell them. Not saying he’s going anywhere anytime soon, but you never know,” says Hill.
It started with a Facebook post. Hill asked the community to spend $20 at the shop.
“It’s kinda crazy, but it makes me feel good when I talk to them about the good life, stay motivated in your life, and do things good for people, and now it’s coming back to me now,” says Dailey.
The community brought the cash, but also brought their stories.
“A lot of people have come in and out of these doors, and he touched a lot of lives just by being in business. He’s been much more than a business owner, more like a dad and an uncle, too,” says Hill.
“I used to be a guy with a temper, and I didn’t want to listen to nobody. The main thing he tells me is sometimes it’s okay to just listen,” says Cyke Nimene.
Three generations of pictures hang on the wall. And in one day, they all come back to say thanks.
“Those pictures are pretty much all of his honorary children... He’s been here touching 5 decades. From the ’70′s onto the 2020s. So he’s ran into a lot of people and he’s been an inspiration to a lot of youth, as well,” says Hill.
“He was my dad’s payee when he had cancer. He made sure my dad was protected truthful,” says Brian Lewis.
Another patron shares that Dailey gave him his first job when he was still a kid.
“And it makes me feel good, inside of myself by me talking to them all that many years, they understand that, and they appreciate that, and they’re showing their love and their respect coming back to me,” says Dailey.
“That’s been inspiring me throughout the years, just to keep a good name, so it don’t get back to Mr. Dailey that I done messed up,” says Hill.
“I love you, Mr. D,” says Hill.
Hill says Dailey inspired him to be a foster parent, which he’s done for seven years now. That is just one small piece of the legacy left by this humble business owner.
Copyright 2021 WTVG. All rights reserved.
"Love" - Google News
March 06, 2021 at 07:20AM
https://ift.tt/3caqgTx
“I love you, Mr. D”: neighborhood pays tribute to store owner Alfred Dailey - WTVG
"Love" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35xnZOr
https://ift.tt/2z10xgv
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "“I love you, Mr. D”: neighborhood pays tribute to store owner Alfred Dailey - WTVG"
Post a Comment