Loss in our Community

I love our little corner of the neighbourhood. Since we have a corner lot and live on the end of a school property, we really don't have any direct neighbours but we have several houses opposite and around our property. Each one of our neighbours are great and we count ourselves lucky to be surrounded by nice people that are either retired (and therefore watch your house) or have kids to play with our boys, or are just, well, magnificent people.

Recently our little community has lost some people and it's been a sad state of affairs. Ralph was in his late 80's with Alzheimer's and recently he moved in with his sister in Cleveland and now he's in a secure locked facility where I don't think he'll last long. It's hard to imagine him, as active and strong as he was, being locked up like that. Ralph was stationed at Burton Wood Air force Base in Warrington (Craig's birthplace) during the war and he would always come over to chat with us. During my maternity leave with Danny he came over with a shoe box full of pictures from the war and we sat for a couple of hours, which is a nice memory to have of him.

Then earlier this week we lost a wonderful man, Edd, who died of cancer. He owned a landscape company and he was always coming over to do stuff to my lawn and he even gave us a lawn mower when ours broke. He was so cheery and so eager to do his bit. He would come out each winter and snow-plough the road and help the older people get their drives clear. I know his wife will be devastated. I'm going to the viewing tonight and not looking forward to it to be honest.

One of the houses has been empty for 5 years but the elderly owner living in a home won't sell it because he's convinced he's coming home one day. And our direct neighbours just inherited a another, bigger house and will be moving in the new year.

So our little group is changing and I feel sad about it. I'm hoping that new people moving in will be young with kids or just as wonderful as the people we just lost.