Evelyn Heller, a 100-year-old woman with a long white ponytail, was sitting on her couch in the living room of her new apartment when there was a knock at the door. On her doorstep was Congressman Raul Ruiz and his wife, Monica Rivers, who was holding a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.
“That’s wonderful!” Heller said, inviting them in. “How sweet of you.”
Fifteen minutes later, there was another knock at the door. This time, it was Tony Robbins, a famous motivational speaker and philanthropist.
“Oh there’s that man again,” Heller joked. “Don’t tell your wife about us.”
For the next 20 minutes, the group sat on the couch and chatted like old friends. Heller confessed she had a crush on President Barack Obama and bragged that she knew Taylor Swift was going to be famous long before she was actually famous. Everyone said they liked her new home.
“I don’t know how anyone my age can have a bigger day than today,” Heller said. “I just don’t know how.”
“I don’t think I’ve talked this much in five years.”
But Heller was not always so jolly. Only three weeks ago, she was impoverished and on the verge of homelessness after being evicted from her apartment in Palm Desert. Robbins and Ruiz raced to the rescue after reading about her plight in The Desert Sun.