WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. _ Raynard Nebbitt now lives less than two miles from his favorite place in the world: the highway overpass that carries South Rock Hill Road over Interstate 44.
But it took a whole community's support to get him there.
More than twenty years of visiting his bridge every day,
Nebbitt has become a Webster Groves icon. The 59-year-old, who has a mental disability, is known to stand on the bridge waving at cars, pumping his arm so trucks will honk and waiting for trains to pass on the nearby tracks.
Most days, he balances an incredibly detailed model of the overpass on his bicycle's handlebars as he rides to the bridge. He made the model out of cardboard, paint and pipe cleaners.
In 2005, the City of Webster Groves renamed the bridge the Raynard Nebbitt Overpass. He rode on a float in the city's Fourth of July parade the next year _ it was a truck decorated to look like his bridge.
But about two years ago, Nebbitt had to move away from his namesake. Financial hardship and health issues caused Nebbitt and his sister and caretaker, Kathy Nebbitt, to lose the Webster Groves home where Raynard Nebbitt had lived for some 40 years.
The siblings were separated. Kathy moved to a nursing home in University City and Raynard moved to live in a St. Louis apartment.
Still, he'd ride his bike more than an hour each way to visit his seemingly unexceptional overpass.
"You can't stop him," Kathy said in July. "I tell him: 'It's way too hot to be going to that bridge today.' You know what he says to me? 'Goodbye, Kathy.' "
Last summer, the story of their troubles became public through local media, including a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In response, the community raised more than $34,000 through the website GoFundMe to bring the siblings home.
Kathy and Raynard Nebbitt have been living in a rental home on Corona Court for about two months. Their new home is just a 15-minute bike ride from Raynard's bridge.
"We are happy," Kathy Nebbitt said last week. "We are home now."
'THIS IS YOUR HOME'
Kathy decided to keep the house a surprise for Raynard.
He had been asking for months in his daily phone calls: "When will we move back to Webster?"
She didn't want to get him too excited until she knew it was final.
A family member had spotted a home for rent about a half mile from the house where they grew up. "It was perfect for us," Kathy Nebbitt said.
But the landlord was dubious at first about Kathy and Raynard's ability to pay the rent, she said.
Kathy Nebbitt now uses a wheelchair and is unable to work. Raynard Nebbitt has worked at Industrial Aid, a manufacturing business that employs people with disabilities in Tower Grove South, for 31 years.
"The landlord was right, we couldn't afford this on our own," Kathy Nebbitt said. GoFundMe allowed us to pay the first year's rent in full upfront, so he let us move in."
The siblings are saving up money to remain in the home for at least another year after that, and are still accepting donations through GoFundMe.
She got the keys for the modest ranch house on Corona Court on Nov. 16. Friends gathered as she surprised her brother.
"This is your home," she said standing on the front porch, her voice breaking. "These are your keys. These are your keys to your house."
Raynard Nebbitt immediately swelled with emotion and hugged his sister, crying into her shoulder.
That week, a sign on Webster Groves City Hall read: "Welcome Home Raynard."
But the kindness did not end there.
News that the siblings were moving back created another swell of generosity. Members of the Webster Groves community created a fund with more than $1,000 at Freddie's Market, a local grocery store, and made a registry for basic home goods at Target to help with the siblings' first Christmas back in town.
Raynard Nebbitt got a new pair of the cargo jean shorts he is known to wear in summer, and craft supplies to help him keep his model of the bridge up to date.
Others bought him books and DVDs about trains. He got a warm hat to wear when he's out on the overpass in the cold.
Someone else bought the siblings a pre-lit Christmas tree for the holiday. The memory of Christmas morning brings tears to Kathy Nebbitt's eyes.
"There were presents up to our knees," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
Nebbitt said people from Webster Groves gave enough gifts to complete their new home.
"I want people to know that we won't forget what they did for us," she said.
She plans for Raynard to march this year in the Webster Groves Fourth of July parade with a sign that reads: "Thank you Webster for bringing us back home."
