For over 20 years, Mike Moffitt kept receiving calls from an older woman from Florida. Gladys, the lady at the other end of the phone line, was trying to reach her daughter in Maryland. Mistakenly, she would dial area code 401, instead of 410, and each time she called, Moffitt answered.

Showing great patience, Moffitt finally asked her name, he recalled.

Through the years, Gladys became a prominent presence in Moffitt's life, even though they never met until this year. He made a surprise visit to Gladys' home and presented her with flowers the day before Thanksgiving.

"I just said, 'Hi, I'm Mike from Rhode Island.' Her eyes lit up," Moffitt said of his first meeting with his phone pal.

Moffitt, 46, owner of Dennis Moffitt Painting in Wakefield, Rhode Island, spoke with Gladys regularly when she would call to check up on him and his family or to inquire about the weather in Rhode Island.

"I started to do the same," he said.

At first, the conversations between "Mike from Rhode Island" and "Gladys from Florida" were rather topical and lighthearted, only lasting a few minutes. They randomly called one another just to talk.

Gladys also made sure her son called Moffitt to tell him her husband had died.

"She said, 'Call Mike from Rhode Island,'" Moffitt, who sent flowers to Gladys, said.

As their friendship deepened, Moffit decided to surprise Gladys for Thanksgiving.

"I literally knocked on the door," Moffitt said.

When he approached the door with a bouquet of flowers and announced himself as "Mike from Rhode Island," Gladys was overcome with joy.

"I am blessed," she said.

His visit with Gladys was short because she was preparing for Thanksgiving, but he managed to get a hug, meet her family, and share a friendly selfie.

"There are amazing people in this world who are at the wrong phone number," he wrote on Facebook.

The photo ushered in a flood of comments and likes, and Moffitt also got calls from friends who told him they shared his story with their families on Thanksgiving.

Now that they have officially met, Moffitt looks forward to maintaining their relationship and wants to play a bigger part in Gladys' life.

"She is a great person," he said.

Mike-Moffitt

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