Thank God for Good Neighbors

I live in a neighborhood with, to put it kindly, a persnickety Homeowners Association.   They will flag you for just about anything.  Don't weed your flowerbeds? Flag.   Paint your fence the wrong color? Flag.  Dead flowers in your flower beds? Flag.  But to be fair, they protect me from neighbors' dead flowers, pink fences, and weedy yards.  

However, in the weeks following Mom's death my lawn guy decided to go missing in action and frankly, I just didn't have the initiative to make the phone call to track him down. So every day I came home, checked my mail and expected to find my HOA warning letter for high grass.  Every day.  It was a little dark cloud hanging over my head.  And I'd breathe a sigh of relief every day the mail box was empty.  

Then one day I came home and the grass was mowed.  But there was no bill from my lawn guy.  I asked my neighbors and they knew it had been mowed but no one knew who had done it.  It was several weeks before I discovered that my neighbor across the street had sent her lawn service to my house that day.  In her own words, "I just thought that was one less thing for you to worry about." 

This was just one of many little gifts from my neighbors following my loss.  I didn't have to put my trash can out or put it back away for weeks!  It just magically made it to the curb and back behind my garage every Sunday night.  I honestly never saw anyone doing it.   I received scented lotions and bath salts for relaxation.   It was amazing! 

Now this would have been nice and kind if I'd live in this neighborhood for a long time.  I would have expected neighbors to respond in this way.  But I moved to this house a short 7 months before losing Mom.  These people didn't know me yet.  Seriously, some of them I had only briefly spoken to going in and out of my house.  And yet, they took care of me.  There was nothing trivial in their small acts of kindness and I will never forget.  They are now part of my village.