The other day I went over to give a plant to one of my neighbors and ended up in a long conversation about our mutual worries. We're both busy and don't often get to talk, and when we do it's usually about gardening or cooking. I am not the easiest person to talk to, either, because of my hearing impairment. But thanks to the pitch of her voice I can hear her just fine.
We spent about a half-hour discussing our worries, and in that time managed to reassure each other about a lot of things. I've always known that my guy and I can look after ourselves under most circumstances, but it's good to know the neighbors can, too.
My guy and I live a very quiet life, and mostly keep to ourselves because that's how we are. We hope to move our disabled nephew in with us this year, and our niece just bought a house very close to us. As we've aged our family circle has grown very small. Our parents are gone, and so are most of my guy's siblings. I've ended my relationships with all the toxic people in my life. We would do just about anything for our neighbors, however, as they are very good friends of ours for going on twenty years now.
Times are changing. Most people no longer have friendships with their neighbors -- many never even bother to get to know them -- and that's a shame. If everyone could pull together in our communities during tough times (such as in the aftermath of a hurricane, as we've often done here) I think we wouldn't have as many worries as we do.
Image credit: Image by Luky Mahameru from Pixabay
Comments
There are five families on our road. One ignores us completely which is fine because I got a bad vibe out of both of them. The others are wonderful.
Strangely enough, during the last ice storm, I was about to text everyone to see if they were okay, instead two of them reached out to us first since we were the "elderly". LOL!
re: hearing
Greg is hard of hearing. I have exceptional hearing. It makes life stressful between us because he needs the tv and radio much louder than I can stand.
The hard thing for me is talking to him. I have to nearly yell, which upsets me because it makes me feel I'm being rude. Even after all these years I still have trouble reconciling with myself for speaking so loud to him. He doesn't notice at all. Instead he encourages me to speak up even louder.
That's life for an elderly couple. :)