Today I saw a neighbor I had not seen in close to a year.  He is part of the fabric of my neighborhood.  He is older and had a fall which really incapcitated him, and has also had prostate cancer.

I was so glad to see him.  He is an awesome man, and always does nice things for neighbors, like plowing our tiny streets himself for years and years.  He would plow because often we had to wait a while for our local municipality to plow us out as we are counted  as secondary streets.

He is not as mobile as he once was, and has an amazing and positive outlook on life I  can totally appreciate and applaud.  He and I swapped stories of our lives in the recent past and when I told him about my little dance with breast cancer he said “it just goes to show you never know what is going on with your neighbors just a few doors down.”

We spoke of how the neighborhood had changed and how he and his wife laughed to each other recently about being the new older generation.  He brought his wife to their house as a new bride, and now has long  since raised his children.  He made me laugh when he said “never retire” because it was a few days after he retired that he had his fall.

For the first time he told me about his family.  Lovely stories of his father and the people in their everyday world when he was growing up.

I gained a new appreciation of my neighbor today, and smiled when he told me much like another friend of mine, hates the term “cancer survivor.”  He told me with a smile on his face that he preferred “cancer free at this time.”

Life takes us on many journeys, friends.  Take the time to visit with your neighbors.

Pax