The Good News-- Hanna blew through here with exactly just what I suspected: some wind, some rain, and that's pretty much it. We did wake up Saturday morning without power. The wind knocked over a dead tree in our neighbor's yard and hit a power line. It was only out a couple hours so that's not too bad. By Saturday afternoon it was sunny and humid. Turned out to be a nice day.
The Bad News-- Jason came home on Friday to see police and yellow tape strung up around the front of the neighbor's house. He asked me about it but I hadn't a clue. So being the nebby-nose that he is, he went to one of the officers and told them he lived next door and if there was anything he should know about. The officer didn't come out and say it but hinted around that our neighbor, Lois, was dead. We kind of figured this. See, we used to see her a bit when we first moved in when she was doing yard work. As time went on, we saw her less and less. She wasn't all that old, maybe sixties or seventies. She became sort of a recluse. But her son (at least that's who I think he was) was coming over a few times a week so we really didn't think much of it. Plus there is a patch of woods in between our houses so it's really hard to see down to the house through the trees. Even if she was outside, we may not have saw her.
About an hour after we noticed the commotion, a detective knocked on our door asking when the last time we saw her. Honestly, it had probably been more than 6 months. I get the feeling that she had been dead in the house for awhile-maybe a couple days to a few weeks. Put it this way, the fire department's hazmat team was called in and there were cops and other official people at the house for most of the afternoon.
I know this makes us look like bad neighbors but that's really how it is where we live. Everyone minds their business and keeps to themselves only to say the occasional "How's it going?" while in passing. I do like the peacefulness that our neighborhood has but I do miss the comaraderie that's found by living on post.
The FIT Challenge
15 years ago
1 comment:
You're not a bad neighbor. In this day and age, neighbors just don't get together...especially if you don't have anything in common. And what would you have had in common with an older woman who was slightly reclusive?
Even in my neighborhood of 5 duplex buildings (just a little circle), we don't really know the neighbors all that well, and we've lived here for 2 1/2 years. One family we know because a: they have kids and ours and theirs play together, go to school together, etc...b: they're military like we are and c: they moved in right around the same time as us. We know another neighbor because her daughter is of babysitting age (and you can't go wrong with your babysitter living 10 steps away, can you?). But the rest of the neighborhood...more transient. We have tried to get everyone together, but they just don't participate. We have had (for 2 years) a neighborhood cookout....but of the 10 homes here, only 5 participated, and one family has moved since then.
It's sad that your neighbor died...and that it may have been days...but it does work both ways...if you extended a greeting when you first moved there and she didn't reciprocate, it's hard to keep trying.
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