Neighbour

Its been aorund three months since our neighbour passed away. He was one of those men who could smile about everything. Always had a kind word for everyone on the street. He never shut the door on you even if you were simply walking past his house. He moved in with his beautiful wife a month or so after we had moved into the neighbourhood ourselves. We thought he said his name was Clinton, but the news of his passing away reached as "Cleveland has passed away"... we still don't know his 'real' name. But we will remember him, always. Sometimes I can almost see him walk passed our house cheerfully calling out, "How are you? Not going to work today?" I miss him. He was the happy grand daddy of our street.

I had often thought of baking something (an experiment of course) and taking it over to him. I liked him a lot. He would be up in the wee hours of the morning in the winter and you know he is out there when you hear the shovel on the sidewalk as he shovels the snow off both his and his neighbours' sidewalks.

It's been snowing for two days now, and his absence is very noticeable, the sidewalks have not been shoveled. I just opened the front door to check if the snow was accumulating heavily, and wondered if I ought to salt it, and I heard a shovel on the sidewalk. It was his beautiful wife, shovelling. If I were not with child, I would go out and do it for her. It seems wrong that she should be doing it. She must miss him so much.

What makes me so sad, is that it took this man's death for us to step into his house and speak to his wife. Take nothing for granted, not a day, not a soul ... life is too short.