‘Honorary Grandpa’: Rhode Island Family of Eight Adopts Elderly Neighbor

A Rhode Island family of eight has made their widowed elderly neighbor their “honorary grandpa.”

Sharaine Caraballo, 32 and her husband Wilson Caraballo, 42, were a bit nervous about meeting their neighbors when they moved into their home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 2022, but Paul Callahan, 82, broke the ice with his new neighbors when he lent them a ladder.

“He was coming over with tools,” Sharaine told South West News Service. “He’d bring screwdrivers and teach Wilson how to fix up the garage and Wilson followed all his advice.”

In no time, Callahan became a regular at family barbecues, and he drops by the house every other day or so.

“He’s always coming over with little trinkets for the kids,” Sharaine said. “They play with him a lot and call him Uncle Paul. He’s got stories for days.”

The retired Texas Instruments manager has become a big part of the Caraballo’s family, and they even gave him an outfit for Father’s Day.

Callahan has become the children’s de-facto grandpa. Wilson’s father lives in the Dominican Republic, and Sharaine said her mother-in-law even jokes that Callahan is Wilson’s dad.

The Caraballos moved in six months after Callahan’s wife died, and he is the last of his siblings still alive.

“I asked what drew him to us and he said he was a very social person and that he grew up around lots of kids,” Sharaine said. “He said, ‘That’s how I grew up, my house was always where everybody hung out.’”