I hate funerals about as much as I hate weddings....A LOT! But I go to them out of respect for the person I know. Today, I went to a funeral to celebrate the life of my friendly neighbor who lived across the street from me. His wife called me last Friday to tell me he was sick with stage 4 cancer that had spread and would I come for a visit because he was feeling down that day. This was the first I had heard that he had cancer and I said I would try to be over to visit but it was a Birthday weekend and I had tons of plans. I didn't make it over that weekend and so planned to bake bread and make a stew to bring over on Tuesday. When I called after work on Tuesday to see if he was up for a visit, his wife told me that he had died that morning. I missed him. So, today I took a day off work, got dressed up and went to his funeral to celebrate his life. I couldn't have asked for a better neighbor. I even posted about "Harley" before in my blog and this is also the story I shared today with his friends and family.....
The first summer I lived here, I took down the front section of trellis. That's when I met my neighbor from across the street "Harley" I call him this because he's a Harley guy and has even taken me out for rides. Harley is in his 70's and tattooed all over...he even has a cute little butterfly on his neck which takes away from his scary persona...no man with a butterfly tattooed on his neck can be that bad! hahaha Harley and I have a great friendship, I borrow things from him like tools and he watches out for me like I'm his daughter. I can't get away with ANYTHING around here.
And this one too.....
The man who lives across the street from me is my favorite neighbor on the block. When I first moved in years ago, I brought the my Mom aka "the Blonde Bombshell" over to see my place. As we are standing on the front porch, "TBB" sees my neighbor looking out his front door and freaks out! She's yelling at me to open the door, open the door!!! When we get inside I ask her what the deal is and she said the neighbor guy was scary looking. I look out the window and of course he's gone. Later that summer I'm out on the front porch ripping down the wooden frame around it and got to met the "scary" neighbor. At this point I have to point out that as a 20 something, I have brought home boyfriends to met my Mom that were way scarier so I wasn't sure what the hell she was talking about??? My neighbor who'll I'll call "Harley" is a little out of the ordinary, (yes, they talk about him too! lol) He's in his 70's, wears a bandana do rag, has a full beard, and tattoos on his arms, legs, and neck ( a butterfly on his neck!!!! hehehe really scary!!!) But, he's my kinda guy as he will see me working outside and bring me tools to use, he also takes me for rides on his motorcycle... this past December when I hurt my back so bad he gave me a call the day after it happened. Apparently he noticed me not being able to get out of my car the day before and when the mailman delivered my mail that day he noticed my keys were still hanging in my front door!! So the mailman went to "Harley's" house to tell him what was up with my keys in my door. I can't get away with anything in this neighborhood! Sometimes it's a good thing that everybody's always up in everyone else's business.
This is very true, he knew about EVERYTHING that was going on in this neighborhood! I will miss seeing him wave at me this Spring from across the street but I'm glad I had the pleasure of knowing him. Rest in peace my buddy from across the street.
XOXO,
Betsy
Betsy
