7-year-old triplets reunite with garbage collector who was their ‘hero’

By Michelle Meredith

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    ORLANDO, Florida (WESH) — An Orlando mom posted a video that went viral. It shows the love between her three children and their neighborhood garbage collector.

This is a story about the reunion of Tony Parks and his friends 7-year-old Olivia, Emma and Axel who are triplets. It’s a friendship that had a most unusual start, so let’s start at the beginning.

Parks is a garbage collector for the city of Orlando and years ago the Vee family lived on his route.

“They were excited to see it lift and know and dump it on the back and I say, ‘you know what? Come on, let’s go see how it works,’” Carla Wierenicz, the kids’ mom, said.

Wierenicz said they were wee little kids then who would jump up from the breakfast table when they heard his truck coming.

“He loved those kids so much. It was the kids’ hero,” Wierenicz said.

“Every day they would come out, and if they missed me their mom get in the car, circle around ‘til they found me,” Parks said.

The daily meet-and-greet was so heartwarming that mom would occasionally shoot video. So recently, for grins, Wierenicz posted one of those old videos on Instagram. People were smitten, and you guessed it – it went viral.

“We still have so many kind people,” Wierenicz said. “It’s so beautiful to see that.”

Years ago, Parks’ route changes so the kids didn’t see him anymore. But that changed Thursday when the kids learned the city of Orlando had arranged for Parks to roll up again for old times’ sake.

The four hit the highlights of all the things they used to do when they were 3 years old, like honk the horn and race down the street.

They exchanged gifts. The triplets gave Parks drawings they spent the night making for him. Parks gave the kids mini city of Orlando garbage trucks and T-shirts.

The moral of the story is Parks works in a job where he picks up stuff people don’t want, but from the triplets, he picked up something we all want.

“I picked up joy. I picked up happiness. I picked memories,” Parks said.

He picked up love.

Also on Thursday, they exchanged phone numbers so they can FaceTime each other!

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