CHASE CITY, Va. – With the Presidential Election less than three months away, voting is top of mind for many Americans.
But for two men in Mecklenburg County, this November is not just about whether or not their candidate will come out on top. Casting their ballots is far more meaningful.
One of those men is 64-year-old Willie Gayles, who showed CBS 6 around his nursing home room at Chase City Health and Rehab.
One piece of paper that hangs by his chair inside his small, but tidy room has become his prized possession.
“This is very important to me,” Gayles said. “I’m going to read to you from the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Gayles read words from a piece of laminated paper that return something he hasn’t had in nearly 30 years.
“I lost my voting rights,” said the 64-year-old. “I haven't been such a good guy all my life, young, foolish, doing things young guys do.”
Gayles was convicted of his first crime in 1996.
He spent most of his 40s behind bars, without family or friends.
“It was an ongoing thing, like that I just couldn't stay out of jails,” he said. “I wound up in prisons. I don't even want to think about it.”
But by 2009, the Mecklenburg County native was released from prison and returned to his job in Richmond as a builder.
“I got away from all the drama and mess, and I was like man, it's time to quit. Stop," he said.
While Gayles' criminal past was in the rearview mirror, he was still alone. In 2017, he battled colon cancer.
“I wouldn't wish that on nobody, not even my worst enemy,” Gayles said.
A toe amputation in January 2023 landed him at Chase City Health and Rehab, forcing him to give up his independence.
“I was feeling some kind of way when I first came,” he remembered. “I was like don't you say nothing about my feet. That's the way I was feeling. That's what I was thinking.”
But it didn’t take long for Gayles to recognize this place gave him something he’d been missing.
“Sometimes it takes a certain things to happen in your life to sit still and meet some wonderful people,” he noted.
That includes his introduction to Bingo rival Ernest Robertson, whose room is just a few doors down.
“I know everyone in these parts, and they know me,” Robertson smiled.
Born and raised in this two-square-mile town, Robertson shared a past with Gayles that isn’t just fun and games.
“At 42-years-old, I got arrested for selling crack,” he said.
The now 73-year-old served a total of 18 months in jail and finally got off parole in 1999, but he wasn’t free from his battle with substance abuse.
“Sometimes you can look in the mirror and look at yourself, and you don't like what you see,” said Robertson. "You get tired of looking at it.”
Foot issues last January also led Robertson to seek care at this facility.
“I was a mess, angry, just didn't want to do it,” he said.
But Robertson’s friendship with Gayles and his instant bond with the nursing home’s Director of Admissions Melissa Price gave him hope.
“It's like we were supposed to connect in this setting,” said Price.
“I got a couple of ladies I call my angels because they have been here with me all the way through,” Robertson said.
At first, the nursing home's designated greeter and “music man” didn’t want his new friends to get a glimpse at his dark past.
“I didn't like myself,” Robertson shared.
But a conversation about November’s election brought those secrets to the surface.
“He shared with me that he couldn't vote, and he had made some choices in life," said Price. "And that was the end of it. And I thought, it's not the end. It's the beginning.”
Price and another staff member informed Robertson and Gayles they were eligible to have their rights restored.
“I always wanted to get them back because if you're not voting, you have no say so,” said Robertson.
Staff helped the pair submit applications to the Governor’s Office.
“It literally took us four minutes to fill out, and then we just waited,” Price recalled.
A few weeks later, more than 20 years since Gayles and Robertson’s’ arrests and convictions, their second chances arrived via mail.
“I went to the front lobby, and I seen this big manila envelope and I seen, you know, the government symbol, and I seen his name, and I thought, oh, my goodness, it's here like this, this is it," said Price.
“She looked at it and read it, and seeing that gold seal, that was a home run,” Robertson recalled with a big smile.
Similar to Gayles down the hall, Robertson has his laminated letter displayed in his room.
“It means a whole lot to me, a whole lot,” an emotional Robertson explained. “I have a voice now. I didn't have a voice before, but now, I have a voice.”
While Robertson and Gayles can now vote, serve on a jury and run for public office in this “land of the free,” they’ve also found a place they’re proud to call home.
“We’re very lucky,” said Gayles. “This is my family.”
The road doesn’t end at Chase City Health and Rehab for these two pals because they didn’t come to a nursing home to die.
“Each one of us has our journey, but on our journey, we are supposed to learn something to pass on to somebody else,” Robertson explained.
In fact, it’s where they finally feel like they’re living.
“I think the Lord is not through with us yet,” smiled Willie. “I think the Lord has some other things he want us to do.”
Price plans to drive Mr. Robertson to the polls to cast his very first Presidential ballot in-person this fall.
As for Gayles, he’s hoping to drive himself, as he’s slated to move into his own apartment next month.
It’s right around the corner from Chase City Health and Rehab, so he says he’ll be back often to visit his friends.
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