Mr. Rogers Would Be ProudNEIGHBORS THEN AND NOW I live in a neighborhood where I am close to my neighbors physically, but I don’t actually know them very well. The houses are close together and everyone has fences that define their property and provide a bit of privacy. This is very different from the neighborhood where I grew up. There was more space and few if any fences. We could see the yards of everyone else on the whole block. I knew all of my neighbors and went to school with their kids. A NEW NEIGHBOR: ADAM The sidewalk in my neighborhood is only a few feet from my front door. When I am out in my front yard, minding my garden, I chat with the people who walk by. The other day, when I was digging weeds out of the cracks in the sidewalk, I met a new neighbor from down the block. He had seen me toiling away as he rode by on his bike. He introduced himself as “Adam” and looked like a typical local college student, casually dressed in a latent hippy kind of way except he was wearing garden gloves. He obviously had a purpose in mind and offered to help with the weeds. He was very sweet and very insistent about helping. I was almost finished with the pesky weeds that had taken over the gutter along the street and every little crack in the concrete, but I took him up on his offer and let him tug out the last of them. He was stronger and faster than me, and his youth and enthusiasm made me feel very much like the little old lady I am. I was grateful for his help and sent him off with some freshly picked tomatoes from my garden. A LITTLE KINDNESS MAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Afterwards, as I pondered this unexpected encounter, I felt like I had received a gift beyond just the removal of a few weeds. When he told me his name and smiled at me with his soft eyes it felt like I was experiencing something biblical. Adam is not a common name for a young man from the current generation and he acted much older and wiser than his years. He made me feel like there is a God and there is someone watching over me. I haven’t seen him again but maybe I will run into him on one of my walks. I am usually not good at remembering names but I won’t forget his, or the kindness he showed to a little old lady in the neighborhood.
2 Comments
Meg
9/27/2023 09:28:05 pm
sweet story!
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Anu
10/21/2023 10:12:56 am
Hi Leslie - I recently bought your book at the Santa Cruz book shop and loved it so much!! I was reading it at the local cat&cloud cafe and laughing out loud often enough that a couple of people asked me what I was reading. Hopefully, that’s some word-of-mouth marketing for the book ;)
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Leslie Masona woman in search of her post-retirement future Guess what! By subscribing, you get notices about the latest Little Old Lady with Cats posts sent to your mailbox!
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(from an entry posted on 5/1/2015) “I definitely fit some of the characteristics of a little old lady with cats: Retired - check, Single - check, Like to knit - check, Have cats - check. . .I do not want to get stuck in my Little Old Lady persona, however. In fact, this blog is a risk taking experiment in exploring and redefining what I want my retired life to look like.” Categories
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