In February, I wrote about George Smith, a 70-year-old North Raleigh resident who had been evicted from his apartment after an inadvertent double payment to Progress Energy threw his finances into a tailspin.

When you live paycheck-to-paycheck -- especially when you're disabled and limited in your ability to make adjustments -- these things can happen.

I'm glad to report Smith has landed on his feet. His is a case of, "What goes around, comes around."

Smith had a productive career in the food service industry. He even became a local celebrity in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the 1980s. He owned a popular cooking school and got write-ups in newspapers and airtime on local TV news.

When he was forced to retire in 2002 because of Parkinson's Disease, Smith was head of food services for the Raleigh Civic Center. He had been living in a drab apartment with patched-together furniture -- then he lost even that.

Forced to leave the apartment quickly, Smith took little more than his beloved dog, Honey. He never married and has no relatives in North Carolina.

I learned about his plight when a friend of his called. After I wrote about him, a few Good Samaritans sprang into action.

One was a former neighbor of his, Judith Valerie, who took up a collection among her yoga students and helped him pay his security deposit at a new apartment in Capital Towers.

The other angels were Rich and Jerri Theer. The Theers were really just repaying Smith's good deeds, though,

After Smith's health forced him into retirement, he didn't sit around feeling sorry for himself. One of the things he did was volunteer at Durant Road Preschool. He had been going there for about two years to read to children or just interact with them.

"This is a preschool so when you have elderly people it's like a magnet to them," said Jerri Theer.

She put out the word to the staff at the preschool and they came up with cash, clothing and furniture, some donated. Smith and Honey, who had been living with a friend, are happy as they can be in the new apartment.

His experience had left him down and disappointed at a couple of points, but things are looking up for him.

"There still are some good people in this world," he said.