When a Florida woman was evicted from the house she had lived in for decades, neighbors rallied to help, including one who gave her the ultimate gift: she bought back the house. 
 
 Angie Tyma moved back into her longtime home in Hudson, Florida, on Tuesday, which happened to be her 89th birthday, after three weeks of staying at a Days Inn hotel. She told TODAY that losing the house was a scary time, but she was glad to be home. 
 
 "I went through hell and back," she said. "I've lived in this house for 35 years." 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Tyma was evicted last month after learning the person she had sold the house to several years earlier, who lives in Europe, had stopped paying the mortgage, and the house went into foreclosure. Despite a warning, Tyma, whose husband died nearly 20 years ago, didn't think she would be tossed onto the streets. 
 
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 "They threw me out," she said. "I couldn't believe it." 
 
 Once the neighborhood saw Tyma's belongings being taken out of the house, they jumped to help. But it was Danielle Calder, who lives a few houses away, who made the decision to buy back the house. 
 
 She contacted the company that had purchased it at auction and bought it back for $167,500. Now she's Tyma's new landlord. 
 
 "Quite honestly, I didn't need another house," Calder, 65, told TODAY. "But I needed her. I couldn't see her living in a motel room... she's been here so long. Everyone looks out for her." 
 
 Calder, who splits her time between Massachusetts and Florida, described Tyma as "the fabric of the neighborhood." Hudson is on Florida's west coast, about an hour north of Tampa. 
 
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 "Everybody knows Angie," she said. "She has two little dogs that she walks. She's an elderly woman, but she's pretty feisty, and she has lots of energy." 
 
 Tyma, who now pays rent to Calder (they declined to disclose the amount), said returning home was her best birthday present yet. 
 
 "Usually one of my neighbors bakes me a cake every year, but this time, when I got out of the car, and saw all these people, and the media... I was in a state of shock," she said. "I was speechless. I couldn't even talk." 
 
 The Tampa Bay Times attended the homecoming and was the first to report Tyma's story. 
 
 "I never expected I would make the front page!" she said. 
 
 Now Tyma's in the process of making her house a home again. 
 
 "I'm unpacking all the boxes. I had a lot of stuff that was broken," she said. "I'm cleaning." 
 
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 She added that she's grateful for Calder, whom she called a "very good friend and a good neighbor." 
 
 As for Calder, she just wanted to help. 
 
 "It was the right thing to do," she said. "We're family — the whole neighborhood." ||||| HUDSON — Angie Tyma didn't mind that her birthday present wasn't wrapped. 
 
 After all, if it had been, she'd have needed a ladder to rip off the paper. 
 
 Last month she was evicted from her Hudson home, where she had lived for decades. When the owner was foreclosed on, her belongings were put on the street. Then a neighbor came to her rescue. 
 
 Danielle Calder bought the home and arranged for Tyma to move back in Tuesday, on her 89th birthday. 
 
 "It's beautiful!" she cried out when she first saw the freshly painted home on Harbor Drive. "I'm happy I'm home." 
 
 Tyma won't hesitate to curse and promises that she can still dance the Twist with the best of them. She lived in the house for 35 years. When her husband died years ago, a family friend who lives in Europe bought the house and rented it to Tyma, Pasco County officials said. But when that friend ran into financial trouble and stopped paying the mortgage, the lender recently foreclosed on the property. It was sold at auction to an investment company. 
 
 Tyma didn't find all that out until Nov. 16 — the day the new owner showed up and forced her to leave. Her belongings were put out onto the street, the front door padlocked. Pasco County Human Services had to get back into the house the next day to get her medicine and dentures. 
 
 Neighbors rallied to help her. They took in her belongings, and the county stored the rest at the Boys & Girls Club of Pasco County. The county got Tyma and her two dogs — Pepper and Ralphie — temporary lodging at a local motel where a neighbor worked. 
 
 "They treated me very well," she said. "(But) I swear to God I felt like I was in prison." 
 
 But Tyma, who isn't exactly shy, had an idea: She asked Calder to buy the house and rent it back to her. 
 
 Calder, 65, lives primarily outside Boston but owns a home in Tyma's neighborhood. She agreed to buy the house for $167,500 and the closing was Friday. Now Tyma will rent the house from Calder, who declined to say for how much. 
 
 "It was worth it," Calder said. "I'm blessed to be able to help her." 
 
 So Tyma knew she'd be able to move back into her house. But she didn't know that it would happen Tuesday, on her birthday, or that the belongings her neighbors were able to salvage were moved back into the house. 
 
 "Everybody has to rub the Holy Mother, and whatever you wish for will come true," Tyma said, rubbing the head of her statue of the Virgin Mary, now returned to its rightful perch atop a mosaic bench on her front lawn. 
 
 "It worked for me." 
 
 Times senior news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Contact Josh Solomon at (813) 909-4613 or jsolomon@tampabay.com. Follow @josh_solomon15.
– Angie Tyma had lived in the same Hudson, Fla., home for 35 years—and when the then-88-year-old was recently evicted due to foreclosure, her neighborhood came together to make sure she could continue living in it. Tyma and her husband initially owned the house, but after his death, a family friend bought it and rented it to Tyma. Unbeknownst to Tyma, that person had since stopped paying the mortgage; the bank foreclosed on her and booted Tyma from the home when an investment company bought it at auction—padlocking the door and leaving Tyma's belongings in the streets. That was Nov. 16, and her neighbors went into action, making sure her belongings were stored and her two dogs had a place to stay, the Tampa Bay Times reports. But one neighbor went even further. Tyma approached Danielle Calder, 65, and asked Calder to buy the house and rent it to her—and Calder agreed. Tyma moved back in on Tuesday, her 89th birthday. "Quite honestly, I didn't need another house," Calder tells Today. "But I needed her. I couldn't see her living in a motel room ... she's been here so long. Everyone looks out for her." Calder says Tyma is "the fabric of the neighborhood," adding that "everybody knows" the "feisty" lady. Before Tyma moved back in, neighbors moved all her belongings back into the house and gave it a fresh coat of paint. Said Tyma, "Usually one of my neighbors bakes me a cake every year, but this time, when I got out of the car, and saw all these people, and the media ... I was in a state of shock. ... I never expected I would make the front page!"