It's Gratituesday, and today I am grateful for the time I had getting to know our neighbor Larry. We were in Florida on vacation over St.Patrick's Day when we got a call that our friends had some bad news to share with us. That morning, Larry had passed away very unexpectedly. We had only known him for four and a half years but it seemed as though he had been in our lives forever. Larry was known as the "Godfather" of the neighborhood, walking it every day to check up on lots with houses and ones he was still farming. He was the man that bought a tiller for his tractor because some of us had large gardens. He planted huge sweetcorn plots so that we could have as much as we wanted and helped us pick it so that it would be fresh. Then he would shuck six or seven dozen so that his wife could help me freeze enough for our family. He was the man who stepped in as a grandfather, when the kids missed theirs because they are so far away. He helped reinforce the value of hard work to our neighborhood children (and a few moms and dads) when they helped him pick rock in the wheat fields. He always smiled and you could never mistake who it was when you watched those long strides taking him back to the house at 5:00 sharp for supper. His strawberries and apples were shared freely as was his sage wisdom. While he is missed, we are ever grateful for the time we had with him. I hope God enjoys the help with any farming issues in Heaven, and I can't help but think he is behind the beautiful April we are having.
Head on over to Laura's at Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday and see what everyone else is thankful for.
I dropped by from Gratituesday. Sounds like a wonderful neighbor. It is obvious from what you have written, why he will be missed in your neighborhood.
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