FORT WORTH, Texas — As the sun moved behind the trees and the small Forest Hill neighborhood grew quiet for the evening, about 20 cars disrupted the peace. The drivers turned from LonStephenson Road and blared "Lean on Me." They honked their horns, held signs out of their windows and shouted their love for the 54-year-old man who lay on a hospital bed in his living room.
Neighbors walked outside and watched two dozen people line the street outside of Thomas Dixon's house. They watched as masked hugs were exchanged, tears were shed and memories were relived.
Some people took turns going into the house to say hi to Dixon, and possibly goodbye.
"You just don't want to see your friend like that," Carlos Sanders said as he walked back outside.
Dixon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019 after a mass was found during a procedure to remove kidney stones. He underwent radiation and chemotherapy and held onto life for as long as he could. But the week after Thanksgiving, his doctor called.
"He gave us a speech about how they did everything they could and there was nothing he could do any longer," Dixon's wife, Sharon, said.
Dixon was placed in hospice care.
The couple is from the Hillside neighborhood, which is nestled between the three neighborhoods that make up Fort Worth's south side, just below downtown and east of the highway. His childhood friends, unable to uplift Dixon's spirits, mourn or support him physically because of the pandemic, decided to hold a drive-by parade to remind him of their love.
"We couldn't bring him to the south side, so we brought the south side to him," Marcus Graves said. "I wanted to do something to show that we love him and Sharon, we support them and we're here."
Great group of friends
When Sharon first saw Thomas Dixon, she knew he was her future husband. They were in college in 1985 when they met and discovered they actually grew up a street apart in Hillside, him on East Richmond Avenue and her on East Jefferson Avenue.
"We never met until later. We just had no idea," Sharon Dixon said on Friday.
She also had no idea that marrying Dixon would basically mean she'd marry into his large group of south side friends. But she was welcomed by the men with open arms and in 1991, the couple exchanged vows. She became a stepmom to Patrick, 38, and Maurio, 35. And they had two daughters, Kolvi, 28 and Paige, 24.
Adopting Dixon's friend group brought Sharon Dixon a lot of joy and they've been a great example of how to hold onto childhood friends.
"They have each other's back, they hang out and talk and sit on the porch and just joke around," she said.
And, when the cancer gripped Dixon, his friends mowed the couple's lawn and made sure maintenance around the house was kept up. Graves said he wanted to do the drive-by parade because it was the only way he could think to safely show Dixon support.
They brought Sharon Dixon food and Graves gathered everyone in a circle on the driveway.
"This is our blood," Graves said. "This is south side coming together. I love the roots I grew up in."
And he reminded everyone of a startling fact — Hillside is in the 76104 ZIP code which, according to a 2019 UT Southwestern study, has the lowest life expectancy in Texas at 66.7 years. A Star-Telegram investigation found that health care and healthy food disparities are a reason and that heart disease is the no. 1 cause of early deaths.
"We are showing tonight that we can beat this, we can get through this," he said.
Because he's in hospice, contracting COVID-19 would likely be deadly for Dixon. Even when he had his strength, he had to stop working at Jazzy Cuts as a barber in the south side neighborhood because of the pandemic.
"It's been strange without him," Tracy Carter, his coworker and friend for 27 years, said. "We're kind of like sister and brother. We met in 1995 in barber college and spend almost all of our time together between work and going to the same church."
Dixon asked Turner to visit him at home several times, and she had to say no. It was a hard decision but she couldn't live with herself if she unknowingly had the virus and gave it to him. The one time they have seen each other, she was masked, outside and far away.
Carlos Sanders was part of the original south side crew who has known Dixon since they were kids.
"He's like one of my brothers," Sanders said. "It's hard that we can't see him and show him our love but as long as he knows we're here, that's what matters. We hope this brings him a smile."
Almost everyone who joined the parade took time off work to be a part of it. As dozens of people gathered in the parking lot of the Berea Baptist Church, they caught up on each other's lives and reminisced about Hillside.
"The Hillside Community Center is what really brought us together," Paula Warren-Houston said.
Hillside is what kept them strong for nearly 50 years.
