This story was submitted as a nomination to the Reader’s Digest “Top 10 Nicest Places in America” contest: a crowd-sourced effort to uncover nooks where people are still kind and respectful in an era of cultural and political divides. If you know of a community, business, or nonprofit where kindness prevails, then be sure to submit a testimony or anecdote here before the June 5th deadline.

The Vermont Flower Farm is owned and operated by two of the nicest, most kind-hearted people on the face of this earth.

Their names are George and Gail Africa and they have an autistic son whose name is Alex Africa. George just turned 70-years-old this past April, but you would never know it.

He and Gail have owned their five-acre flower farm for over 10 years now, but before they bought the land Route 2, they had a flower farm at their house on Peacham Pond, also in Marshfield.

I first met George and Gail about the time they started moving their farm to the Route 2 location from their home by Peacham Pond. A friend and I noticed that for a couple of days they had been making dozens and dozens of trips back and forth by our home. My friend suggested that we let them borrow our…