flowers for every season
when i moved up to burwood, neighbours wasn't something that i worried abt it.
but we were lucky. on our right, there is the greek family. they can be quite noisy at times (only when they have parties) but generally, keep to their own and let us do what we wish. they send easter and christmas gifts over every year, and sometimes, we'll catch up w what's going on w each family.
then there's the family opposite us. she gives us easter and christmas gifts too (mainly sweets for david and myself) and we've even had coffee at her house before. she's sweet.
but then there's the family on our right - in particular, there's leon.
now leon, is one of those really good neighbours. while we were in america for four weeks, he came over to our place and mowed our lawn - we didn't ask him to, he just did. he watered our plants. once, my non english speaking grandma was so upset over her lemon tree, he came over and he fixed that one for her. they couldnt even communicate.
he continually asked david and myself to come over to swim. he had abt 20 of those pinball machine games and he let us play w it. he had a dog that we took for walks. he gave wine over christmas.
and all of things, they just happened. over the years that we've been here( since 1994) he's just done little things to help us....little things that u of course say thank you for but then u never really take notice....they are sweet gestures that u go "aww, that's sweet" and then u push it to the back of ur mind until a time like this....
abt four months ago, we were told that he had been batthling cancer for abt 3 months. it was a shock to the system really, him being only 49 years old.
abt two weeks ago, i saw him walking out to the front of his house to get his mail. i waved.
abt 20 minutes ago, his wife told us that he had died.
while just recently, i knew of one who had died, she was 89 years old. her death was due to her body failing her. her death, though upsetting and sad, was expected. she had after all, lived a good long life, she had done many things, and she had been fighting her illness for about 2 years.
this death, hit so much closer to home. leon is abt the same age as my parents. he was healthy, he was a good person - and it seemed that he still had many things to do. but then, now he's gone.
it is so much more upsetting, bc life isn't just meant to go like that. he of all ppl, deserved to live into his 90s having done everything he wanted.
his wife told us that he died the day after her b'day. he wanted to stay alive until then.
leon was a keen garderner. he loved his garden. his garden was always pretty w the best kind of flowers and it was well maintained. i hope, that, even w his passing, that each spring, winter, autumn, summer - there will be different flowers in his front lawn.
if only, to help us neighbours remember we lost a great neighbour this week.
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