Twenty-three-year-old Collin Smith (right) grew up in Asheboro, North Carolina. When he was a sophomore in high school, he was in a car accident that left him quadriplegic.

Ernest Greene (left), who is 72, attended the same church as Collin’s family, and though he’d never met Collin, he decided he wanted to help.

He offered to do whatever Collin needed, from taking him to school to helping him shave. And when Collin began college, Ernest went too.

They came to StoryCorps to remember that time.

Originally aired April 11, 2014, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday