VIDALIA — The sign on the wall of Shameka Burton’s house sums her connection to the house and the man who once lived there.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” it reads.

“I am so blessed,” she said. “I never thought I would own a house and to have a house like this is amazing.”

When The Dart landed on Clinton Street in Vidalia on Sunday, Burton had just returned home from taking her mother Martha Burton to church.

“Every time I come inside,” she said. “I’m proud.”

It’s a house with a lot of history.

It used to belong to Napoleon “TUT” Mosby, someone that was very dear to Burton.

“There was no blood between us,” she said. “But he was family.”

Burton grew up with Mosby’s goddaughter Jacqueline Harris, whom he raised while Harris’ mother was in the military.

“He treated me like his daughter,” Burton said.

So, when Mosby was in his 70s and sick with cancer, Burton didn’t think twice about being there for him.

“When one of his family members called me and asked if I would take care of him,” Burton said.

“I was like, why didn’t you ask me sooner.”

For the last 10 months of Mosby’s life, Burton brought him meals, took him to the doctor and was someone for him to talk to.

He died in November 2013.

After he died, Mosby’s family wanted to keep the house in which they all had so many memories.

“They wanted someone to take care of it,” Burton said. “And they knew I would.”

“So they gave it to me.”

In the last years of Mosby’s life, his house had fallen into various stages of disrepair, so being gifted the house meant Burton would also be taking on the restoration.

“It’s been a learning experience,” she said. “It’s stressful and a lot of work, but it’s my house now, and it’s worth it.”

Burton along with the help of several others painted, gutted and added new furniture. She made a point of keeping a lot of things the way they were, like mixing his antique furniture with her modern furniture and not touching the pink laundry room.

“I wanted to mix the new with the old,” she said. “The antiques might be worth something, but to me they don’t have a price.”

Now that Burton is moved in, she gets visitors from time to time.

“He was a homebody,” she said. “But people came to him.”

“People still come by and ask me if TUT is here, and I have to break the news to them.”

Burton lets them inside and she shows them the way things are in the house and they talk about Mosby and the way things used to be.

“There is a still a lot of him in this house,” she said.