She and her husband come straightaway to claim it. The purse is short $20. I assure her that whoever nabbed it took the money, but I know James did not. He wouldn’t do anything like that.

They thank James by treating him to breakfast at the old Lakewood Café Brazil.

He’s been rewarded many times.

About 10 or 15 years ago, I remember the pride on his face as we sat on my porch and he told me his chicken-fried steak recipe that he cooked for the elderly Hollywood lady who asked him to stay with her.

For nearly a year he lived with her — a big segue from mowing her yard and doing odd jobs. They loved each other, and he was heartbroken when her family, finally, showed up to visit her one day and found James living there.

They packed her up and sent her to an old folks’ home in Oklahoma. They wouldn’t even let him know how to contact her. Not before she gave him her car, though.