My Neighbor

A.I. Generated

I have written some about my recently deceased neighbor over the years but thought I would dedicate a post to her.

When we were looking to move to this community, long story short, we purchased a small run down house next to a beautiful sprawling brick home in a fairly nice neighborhood. Our house was truly the worst house by far on the block. We didn't know who the owners were of the brick home and never met them before we moved into the house on a hot sunny day. 

But soon after we moved in, our neighbor brought over a plate of chocolate chip cookies for us and introduced herself. As it turned out, her husband had died the month before. She met our oldest daughter, (our youngest not yet born) and liked her enough to invite her over to pet her cats anytime she liked. Our oldest wasn't a big fan of cats back then so never really took her up on it other than petting them on her doorstep with me standing there talking to my neighbor. Later we reciprocated by bringing her some fresh sweet corn from our garden.

In the months and years that followed, I learned from her visits or from other sources, that she and her husband had bought a franchised restaurant many years ago. Then they added another restaurant under the same franchise and another and another. Judging from what I gathered from online sources and newspapers, at their peak, they owned well over 100 of them through three states before her husband died unexpectedly of a heart attack. They also owned several large and profitable businesses in our town as well. 

I've heard lots of stories of their wealth over the years and though I'm sure many are true, I never attached them to my neighbor. To me, she was just a kind, now widowed lady, living next door by herself. I always told her that she could call me for any reason if she needed help but she never did. She had a dedicated handyman (the same one who also died recently after giving my daughter some valuable coins and other things) who did all those things for her. So our relationship was strictly that of being neighbors and saying a few things over the proverbial fence every now and then. She more than once sat on our couch and talked though I have never been inside her house. She kept her private life guarded and I don't blame her. I'm sure she was always asked for money by those around her.

She only had one daughter and before the start of Covid, that daughter moved back in with her mom, my neighbor. The daughter was in poor health and told us privately that her mom was having "health problems" without being specific and so they looked after each other. Our relationship continued on the same though with the trading of food and occasional neighborly chats. We suspected that my neighbor was developing memory issues and later, her daughter confirmed it when she told us her mother didn't even know who I was once when I stopped to drop off some garden produce. We saw less of them after that, I'm sure by design as the daughter I'm sure was trying to protect her mom. But the few times we met, she was aware enough to have a short conversation.

Then 13 months ago, an event which I'm sure I wrote about on here, we saw ambulances late in the evening at our neighbor's place and my wife, a physician, went over to offer assistance if able. It turned out that the daughter had died, most likely the night before, and my neighbor, lost in her dementia hadn't known that. She thought her daughter was still sleeping. An employee of the daughter, who has a show horse farm in southern Missouri, called for a welfare check which is how everything was discovered. Until then, we hadn't known our neighbor's memory issues were that severe. 

That is when the handyman, stopped in and arranged for the home care professionals to look after our neighbor and also asked us to keep an eye out for her which we dutifully did. Other than a handful of times when I saw our neighbor getting her mail or sweeping her sidewalk under the watchful eye of the home care professional, we never had anymore interactions with her. The rotation of cars became like a clock to our neighborhood which is why all the cars in her driveway the week before caught my attention.

I'm not sure what will happen to the estate with only three nieces and nephews totally unrelated to each other other than my neighbor's marriage. I know there was an airport hanger full of restored old cars, a yacht and expensive Florida waterfront condo, the profitable businesses here in town, along with the 100+ restaurant franchise, (I think) all sold before the death of the daughter. So there is most likely a sizeable estate. I hope they had a iron clad will and it all gets divided up without quarrel. 

I'll miss my neighbor and her chocolate chip cookies and the quiet unassuming relationship we had over the years. I'm praying that whomever buys that house next to ours, will also have a similar relationship with us. Hopefully they will not judge us harshly as we still own the smallest house on the block (by far) but it now looks a lot more respectable than it once did when we first bought it.

Finally, to close this post out, at the funeral which we attended, the officiant asked the 40 of us attending whom among us had eaten our neighbor's chocolate chip cookies. Everyone there that I saw raised their hand.