Good Neighbors

I  sometimes come across stories that fill me with hope about humanity and yet they are the types of stories that would never be written about professionally. Here are three of them.

Skwigg wrote about how she came across “the body” on her way home one evening. She wrote: “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw somebody lying halfway on the sidewalk and halfway in a yard. Of course, I’d traveled like two blocks before I fully processed what I had seen. His legs were bent kind of funny. He was wearing shorts. He was older. Glasses. Hat. And here’s the kicker, it was starting to rain. There’s no reason somebody would be lying there like that unless he was dead or unconscious.” It was midnight, in a not great neighborhood. How easy would it be to simply drive on by? How easy would it be to forget that this was someone’s son, father, or brother? Skwigg’s story of going back and of rethinking how to have been an even better neighbor is here.

While she was out running, Irene saw an elderly lady across the street fall down and not get up. The woman told Irene that she was OK. How easy would it have been to simply keep running? To simply  accept the words that no help was needed? To focus on the training run and getting the time and mileage in? Irene instead crossed the street, helped the woman up and walked her home. Even now, three months later, she still checks on this woman regularly.

My 88 year old grandmother in New Jersey is currently in the hospital. She’d developed a liver cyst that is causing her a lot of pain that is being taken drained. I’ve been getting daily updates from my family on her prognosis. In the update last night I was told about a young man, Brian, who was visiting my grandmother and helping her to eat. I have no idea where Brian came from or how he met my grandmother. According to my mom, before she went in the hospital, Brian would come each week to take my grandmother to the hair dresser. Brian and his girlfriend also take my grandmother out to dinner regularly. Thank you Brian.