living alone. Neighbors had taken the
time to handle her garbage cans so
she didn’t have to, and he never for-
got. Now he paid it forward by doing
the same for all of us. (It was also his
way of sneaking a smoke while Gee
wasn’t looking.)A few years after we’d moved in,
Tom died. We photocopied that letter
and attached it to one of our own for
Gee. We told her how special Tom had
been to us, how we grieved for her,
how thankful we were to have known
him—the inadequate words that come
with condolence. She wrote back and
told us she still talked to Tom every
day. When Gee invited us over to look
through Christmas ornaments, I real-
ized how hard it must be to part with
that box, a piece of Tom.These days, we’re piling up boxes
of our own. We’re planning a move.
The house that seemed so huge six
years ago is filled to capacity with
furniture and books and toys and, of
course, people. We know it’s time to
go, and yet we can’t seem to stick the
For Sale sign up on the lawn. Gaining
a third bedroom and maybe an office
sometimes seems like a lousy trade
for all we stand to lose.
It’s not just Gee. It’s the man who
lets our kids pick peaches off the tree
in his front yard. It’s the ladies who
call Jim when their pool filter breaks
and leave overflowing baskets for our
kids on Easter. It’s the corrections
officer directly across from us, who
smiles and waves and makes me feel
a little safer when Jim is away.
The moving boxes are still neatly
packed in our basement, but Jim
and I agree to wait until January. This
Christmas, we’ll decorate our tree with
Gee’s ornaments, out of the box that is
labeled in Tom’s handwriting. Maybe
I’ll talk to him just as Gee still does.
Thank you, I’ll say. For teaching us
what it means to be a neighbor.WE KNOW IT’S TIME
TO MOVE, AND YET WE
CAN’T SEEM TO PUT
THE FOR SALE SIGN UP.Reader’s Digest Life Well Lived
38 dec 2018 )jan 2019
In the Line of Fire
Jerry Parr, a Secret Service agent who helped save
President Ronald Reagan’s life during a 1981 assassination attempt,
was inspired to join the Secret Service after seeing the movie
Code of the Secret Service. The film’s star? Ronald Reagan.
wtkr.com