We’ve been neighbours for 20 years. Sadly, I watch her husky sons load the truck as they haul their mother’s furniture to her new apartment.
Through the years we’ve shared some special moments…my husband’s heart attack and cancer and also her husband’s cancer.
She once said, “I saw you reading your Bible on the back step one sunny, summer morning. I was happy to know that you were a Christian too.”
We’ve shared cups of coffee, joys over new grandchildren, tears at times of death and often our faith.
While our faith has grown, we find our poundage noticeably shrinking. We’re not as full-blown as we once were. Like roses, we’re beginning to fade a little. You can accept the wrinkles and the ache of arthritis, but it hurts to say goodbye to an old friend. She won’t be there next Spring to admire my flowers, or to bring over a brimming bowl of raspberries. No more borrowed bits of butter or mid-winter calls to check a cranky furnace.
Yes, I am happy for her. Her days of fighting with the lawn mower and the snow blower are all gone. We’ll probably bump into each other at the Mall and we’ll still have opportunities to visit, but the house next door will seem strange without her car in the driveway.
The next week there was a new car parked there and for a year or two a new family…then they were gone and I felt again the loss of friends.
Again, a new car arrived, but out stepped a friend.
“Rae,” I asked. “Have you bought this house, are you my new neighbor?” Her affirmative answer put a grin on my face. It was the beginning of an endearing relationship.
Rae has been one of God’s very special gifts to me and I find myself in an unusual position. Sometimes I am friend, sometimes sister and sometimes mother, to this special woman who is my daughter’s age. Besides our love of gardening and the beauty of God’s world, we can laugh together, cry together and pray together.
A few years ago it was my turn to move but this time the mile or two differences in our residences counted for naught. Now she visits me and once in a while I go back to the old neighbourhood, glance with fondness at my old house and sit on her deck. Together we enjoy the flowers, the view and the memories of times gone by. God’s plans, even right down to our friendships are full of love and blessings.
