As hurricane Rita zeroed in on our homes our elderly neighbors made it plain that they could not evacuate due to his wife’s frail health. My wife was on chemo so we were stuck also. My neighbor and I were talking as the monster approached that evening and we heard what sounded like a shotgun firing. It was the power lines slapping together in the wind arcing out and sending showers of sparks falling to the ground.
He calmly said “Well, I guess we had better go in now.” We said our goodbyes and battened down the hatches. We lost power at 8:30 and were thrown into darkness, it got very intense about 03:30 A.M. as trees came through the roof and the rain poured in.
Finally before dawn it subsided and as the sun came up we looked outside. The fallen trees were so thick I could not walk next door to his house. I literally had to climb through the branches just to get there and pound on his door. They were both alright, their house had not sustained as much damage as ours.
Several days later without electricity in the smothering heat that left for his daughter’s house. My job was shut down so I got the chainsaw and began cutting the trees into firewood. Four days later my yard was clear and I started on his. Two days later he had a clear yard and a large stack of firewood.
I had knee surgery this summer and was disabled. I heard a noise and went out front. There was my 70 year old neighbor mowing my lawn. He did this twice. His wife, Tony now is suffering from COPD and her days are short. On a fixed income they are struggling to make ends meet.
We went to share our Thanksgiving dinner with them and saw several rotten tree limbs piled on their porch for firewood. I still have a huge pile so I loaded a wheel barrow and took it to them. He told me that he would unload it and return the wheel barrow the next day. I told him not to, just to return it when they were out of wood so I could bring more as we weren’t using it.
I return to work tomorrow and my wife asked me to call them and ask for our Tupperware back so she could pack my lunch. Tony no longer answers the phone due to her health, but she got the message. At half time I opened the front door to go there and get our Tupperware.
There was a huge bag of turnip green and green beans fresh from their garden along with our Tupperware. The green beans were huge, some were 8” long and so fresh they snapped really loud when my wife broke them.
It all comes back to you if you have good neighbors.
He calmly said “Well, I guess we had better go in now.” We said our goodbyes and battened down the hatches. We lost power at 8:30 and were thrown into darkness, it got very intense about 03:30 A.M. as trees came through the roof and the rain poured in.
Finally before dawn it subsided and as the sun came up we looked outside. The fallen trees were so thick I could not walk next door to his house. I literally had to climb through the branches just to get there and pound on his door. They were both alright, their house had not sustained as much damage as ours.
Several days later without electricity in the smothering heat that left for his daughter’s house. My job was shut down so I got the chainsaw and began cutting the trees into firewood. Four days later my yard was clear and I started on his. Two days later he had a clear yard and a large stack of firewood.
I had knee surgery this summer and was disabled. I heard a noise and went out front. There was my 70 year old neighbor mowing my lawn. He did this twice. His wife, Tony now is suffering from COPD and her days are short. On a fixed income they are struggling to make ends meet.
We went to share our Thanksgiving dinner with them and saw several rotten tree limbs piled on their porch for firewood. I still have a huge pile so I loaded a wheel barrow and took it to them. He told me that he would unload it and return the wheel barrow the next day. I told him not to, just to return it when they were out of wood so I could bring more as we weren’t using it.
I return to work tomorrow and my wife asked me to call them and ask for our Tupperware back so she could pack my lunch. Tony no longer answers the phone due to her health, but she got the message. At half time I opened the front door to go there and get our Tupperware.
There was a huge bag of turnip green and green beans fresh from their garden along with our Tupperware. The green beans were huge, some were 8” long and so fresh they snapped really loud when my wife broke them.
It all comes back to you if you have good neighbors.
