Who Are the Unexpected Friends in Your Life?

I love this. We have neighbors like this and it truly is an incredible gift – priceless, really.

My roommate from my last year of uni was my least expected friend. We didn’t live in dorms, we lived in a flat in town, and she wasn’t a student, she worked as a baker and a babysitter. We had different political opinions (though not opposing), and very different backgrounds, and 0 mutual friends. She came to see the room bc her sister saw our post on facebook – she’s not on social media to this day! We clicked immediately, but she didn’t take the room bc she got a bad vibe from my then-roommate (and rightfully so), and we said we’d keep in touch but didn’t. I guess fate wanted us together though – 6 weeks later, when she called to ask if the room was still free, as she hadn’t found a place yet, I got to tell her yes, and the awful roommate was actually leaving! She signed the lease the next day and moved in quickly after, and she made that year magical – we’d have breakfast on the balcony together and I’d show her my plants, she’d hype me up when uni was rough, I cooked for her when she injured her knee and couldn’t walk. We’d have random craft or book nights, thrift shop, go for pizza and ice cream dates (with our amazing 3rd roommate as well). We had kitchen dance parties, outfit and makeup chats every day, deep conversations until 3am. We became such close friends I can’t imagine my life without her, and I’m so grateful that we got to live together that year <3

My Jesse was Anna in the school where I worked. I was 26 years old and she was 50+. I will always be grateful for the times she saw I was having a tough day as a new teacher and how she did what she could to cheer me up.

We had a Jesse in our neighborhood, too – his name was Richie. He had a gruff exterior, but a heart of gold. He was always helping neighbors with any house fix-ups they needed, giving advice, puttering around his yard, and walking his dogs (they were like him – intimidating at first, but total sweethearts). He would go around passing out homemade lasagnas to all the neighbors every holiday season. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago. Even though new people moved into his house years ago, we still call it “Richie’s house.”

This is making me tear up in the library. My dearest friend during covid was my husband’s great aunt who lived next door. We actually bought the house she had built with her husband in the 60’s! Sadly, she passed last November, and I really miss her. She loved my kids so much, and was always out about gardening well into her 80s. She always had a cookie or cracker for my boys too. Her daughter would thank me for ‘keeping her company,’ but I truly loved the time I got to know her. Hold those friends close, and tell them as often as you can how much they mean to you :)

One of my dearest friends is Barbara. She’s 69 to my 41. We met at choir about 10 years ago, when we randomly sat together. Got chatting, and the rest is history. I’m busy, in the way that people in their 40s are, so we only manage to get together about every 3 months. We have long, leisurely lunches and put the world to rights. She’s given me so much life-changingly good advice.

I think COVID revealed “friendships” we never knew we relied on. That parking garage attendant you talked to daily who you no longer saw when you worked remotely. The usual people you passed and maybe even stopped to talk to as you went by. Those people became something like friends and I remember wondering and hoping that they were ok. However, as a pediatric nurse, friends come in such a wonderful variety of ages. From that young mom to an ancient physician still kicking around the unit.

Truly couldn’t love this article more. More inter generational friendships is the key to happiness in my book. Thanks for the reminder.

Oh my heart! I love this so much, Janelle. We moved to Florida a year ago and have many septegenarian neighbors. While I would love to have a few families with kids nearby, I am so grateful for these intergenerational friendships that my family has formed with our wonderful neighbors! ♥️

Beautiful. That last sentence ♥️

This is so unexpectedly sweet! People like Jesse are true gems.

I met Rene when I joined a ladies bowling league over nine years ago, and she has become my most treasured advisor. At first I called her my bowling coach and others laughed since I’m a mediocre bowler at best. She quit bowling at age 92 as arthritis in her hands made it hurtful to continue. Rene is now 99, lives alone in the house she’s been in for over 40 years, still gardens, bakes every weekend and is a true inspiration. Seven years ago I was lucky to find a house within a 5 minute drive from hers. In the summer she turns her carport into her “cottage” oasis and a place for friends to drop by to share some laughter and lemonade. I can’t tell you how many tears, frustrations, and decisions Rene has helped me deal with over the years.

I read every single one of these comments and they just made my heart sing – thank you to everyone for sharing! I was fortunate enough to have a Jesse in my life. Mary Jane was my grandparents neighbor from the day that their family moved back home to Seattle from 20+ years living around the world as a military family. She was a generation older than them, widowed and childless. By the time I came around 6 years later, she was already firmly entrenched as a member of our family. We spent a lot of time at my grandparents house and no visit ever took place without visiting MJ, who always had treats at the ready and would listen to all of our stories. When my Grandpa died young, MJ and Grandma started having dinner together most nights, devised a homemade security system using the curtains of their living room facing windows and even vacationed together. When MJ started losing her eye sight, Grandma took her for doctors appointments and errands. The layers of intergenerational friendship and love were deep and wide – she is still missed since she passed 20ish years ago <3

For 8 years while raising 2 kids I lived in a small apartment building in LA half full of people in their 70s and 80s. Frazzled and stressed, I’d pass by their windows going from my car to my home, going from carrying one baby to 2 active boys racing toward their home. One elderly woman would wave to me from her window, give treats to my kids for Halloween, and pass on laundry machine tips…over the course of our time there, the man who’d always fix his car out front passed away, the active woman next door had a stroke and could no longer walk around on her own, another woman had a constant helper as she got less mobile…my heart would drop when a firetruck would come by because of one of our neighbors. When we were moving out, the woman at the window said to me “you… you’re good. You’re a good mom.” She had seen and heard me daily, many times when I felt the worst, overwhelmed with motherhood and feeling like a failure… those words meant the world to me. I treasure those friendships.

This post made me feel an ache for the lack of neighbor friends my little family has. A few years ago we were under contract on my dream house, a Victorian near a big park that is THE park you go to in my city. Before we could close, we had to resolve a fence dispute with our soon-to-be neighbors. We brought over cookies and introduced ourselves, they seemed so lovely and nice, but when the time came to discuss moving the fence (by about 2 feet, it was encroaching on “our” side, making the lot smaller than the city allows) things got a little dicey. Lawyers had to be involved, the fence did end up getting moved, and they have since spoken to us maybe 3 times in as many years. I give them fresh tomatoes from our garden, always say hi, try to be sweet as pie, but they are not budging. I understand why, and I know I am not entitled to anyone’s friendship, but it hurts my heart all the same.

Many many years ago my then boyfriend dumped me for someone else. I never held it against her because I knew he wasn’t in love with me. She’s now one of my oldest and dearest friends.

I’m friends with my dentist’s mother-in-law. I didn’t meet her in his office. Part of my volunteer work is protecting and helping trees in our historic Boston neighborhood and she had two very diseased, dying trees that had to come to down. The first time I met her and her husband, who are probably a decade older than me, in front of their building to discuss the trees, I instantly knew I liked her. Then she mentioned that both of them had cancer and were surviving. She told me an amazing story of how she was diagnosed and treated and then she grinned at me and said, “You really can get through anything!” which was just what I needed to hear. We hit it off, and I learned that she had been her husband’s dental hygienist and that their daughter is a dentist, and is married to a dentist, who happens to be my dentist. We meet up for morning beverages and tell each other stories for a couple of hours whenever we can. We should all get to know our dentist’s mother-in-law.

I bought a brand new townhouse a few years ago and with being one of the first people in the neighborhood I for some reason thought that more people like me (late 20s/early 30s) would move in. Boy was I wrong. It’s been filling up with people in their 70s and 80s. Married, widows, grandparents. It’s not at all what I expected and I’m so grateful. They are truly some of the best people. I had my first PTO day since Christmas last week and had chatted to one of them about how badly I needed that three day weekend. A few days later, I get done with work and sit on my front porch to enjoy the sun and officially start my three day weekend and out comes my neighbor. She walks over holding something in a napkin and said “I made you a couple of cookies to celebrate the start of your long weekend.” To say I almost cried is an understatement. I always tell others around my age not to neglect the old people. They’re the ones who are happy to visit with you, the ones who check in on you, and give you so much unexpected love and care.

My unexpected friend passed away in 2019 right before I met my husband. I always sort of wonder if he had a hand in that from afar. I like to think so. I was a college student working at the cafeteria on campus and he was a full time, non-student worker. He self identified as a pirate-y sort of fella, at a staggering height, tattoos, long hair, and at a glance, looked a bit of a curmudgeon. He trained me on the registers when I broke my foot and had to have somewhere to sit, and I found that he was a gentle giant with a warm soul, and I would say that him and I were kindred spirits of sorts, in fact. We liked to share poetry, take walks, and go get a treat once and a while. He was a mentor that happened upon me. He was a big hand in helping me finish my studies, and was there proud as could be when I got my degree. Sometimes I think about how giddy he would have been in meeting my daughter, who is now two. Maybe he had a hand in blessing me with her. I hope I can keep his memory alive and share about our tiny adventures when she is old enough to understand who he was to me.

Jannelle, you are a good egg and a great writer. I just loved this post, it made me think of my own childhood friendships with neighbors, some of whom I hadn’t thought about in years. Thank you for this.

Thank you for this sweet post. It really hits hard. I think of my everyday people I see during my daily routine – the ones I never thought I would have a friendship with but suddenly our passing small talk turns into a meaningful friendship I can no longer picture not having.

I lived near a park growing up. One night, in my late teens, I went to the park to do what teens did at parks at night. And I saw a man sleeping there. Night after night, I’d take a walk through the park and every time, this man was there. One night, he wasn’t sleeping, he was sitting upright meditating. I asked him his name and he asks me his. A few days later, I brought Felix some food and he told me he was vegetarian. He also told me he was “staying” at the park. He told me he meditated four hours a day. About a week later, I ran into Felix at the library. We sat and chatted. I learned a lot about his family, how his dad was some famous scientist. Felix was really smart. He was a Buddhist and he was also going through some personal stuff with his mom. I kept bringing Felix food. He kept sweeping the corridors of the public park. Some of our neighbors noticed Felix living there, my dad included. They all agreed to let Felix stay. It was an unwritten rule, no one bugged him. Felix looked over the park. Kept it clean and tidy. A guardian angel of the sycamores and oaks. He stayed there for many years, and I always loved going back to visit him. When I was pregnant rubbing my belly and bringing him yellow curry. Or when my daughter was born, and we strolled through the park, Felix was there. Every time I saw him, he’d stop me and hug me, tell me that I was the first one to be kind to him. It was so easy to be kind to him.

Jesse’s cute!

So so special. That picture with the popsicles is just the absolute sweetest.

One of my closest friends is a guy who is 20 years older than me. I’m in my front yard gardening a lot of the time. We had recently gotten a new tree planted by the city. The first time I met Mike, he walked by the tree, looked at me and said, “Geez you know that’s a crap tree, don’t you?” What a greeting! He’s always making me laugh. He goes on neighborhood walks with my dog and me, we’ve really gotten to know each other the last few years. He’s taught me an important point about gardening – it really matters most what the leaves of the plant look like. Don’t just choose something for the blooms because it’s only going to bloom for a short time. The foliage is what you’re mostly going to be looking at. He’s my only friend who never cares about walking in bad weather. We live in the Midwest where people typically hide inside all winter. Not Mike, he’ll still go on walks with us and he isn’t bothered by any of it.

This post made me tear up – thank you for sharing.

put this post in the COJ hall of fame! The humanity, simplicity, rich storytelling, and care so representative of what brings me back to the blog each day (well- let’s face it, multiple times a day) since I was in my undergrad in 2011. I’ve had many Jesse’s in my life – right now I have a group of them! I was lucky enough to be ushered into a group of 60+ mostly retired women with whom I have biked and ran for many years and now we cottage, travel and exercise together. The fact that I’m the age of their daughters doesn’t matter one bit, they treat me like an equal and I’m astounded by their courage, vibrancy, and wisdom on the regular. Multi-generational friendships are truly the best (and one of the things I miss about going to church from when I was younger). To those wondering how to meet a Jesse, I find low-stakes, recurring, positive interactions in community minded/third-spaces to be a place that is likely to foster such relationships. Thanks Janelle, for your care in telling this story! Xo

I live in NYC in a huge building and have made friends with so many of my neighbors. Having a kid helps — it’s easy to meet parents of other kids on the local playground and older people like to engage with little ones. Once after chatting in the elevator with a woman in her 90s about my toddler’s potty training, she stopped by with a potty training book that had a sticker chart. He loved it and was so enchanted that she brought it by especially for him. We became friendly — turns out she is a playwright. Eventually she invited us to the debut of one of her plays and my husband went while I wrangled the toddler. It was on a weeknight somewhere deep in Harlem. He said that at the end he realized another neighbor, our doorman and the building super were in the audience too — just the whole building quietly supporting her.

Our next door neighbors have become family in the 9 years since we moved in. When I was sick for months, George came by every morning and drove my kids 30 minutes (each way!) to school. Today is Linda’s birthday, and I get to make her favorite chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. My kids have bonus “grandparents” next door, and we get all the fun of a dog without having to, well, have a dog. To say we hit the jackpot is the understatement of the century.

My husband is the best at making friends, plus keeping them. I’m more reserved, and if it were just me I’d probably only have facebook friends. But I swear he just decides he is going to be friends with someone and it’s an unstoppable force. One time we were at a (very boring) meeting for a race car club and he pointed out a man sitting at another table and mentioned he’d overheard where he worked. I nodded and went back to trying to stay awake. But within a few weeks we had a new friend Russ. Then not much later his wife Patty and two lovely daughters. Within a few years we were traveling together, even internationally, taking vacations together etc. We even got to the plantation Patty grew up on and meet some of her childhood friends. They are dear friends – lodged firmly in my heart even though we moved to another state and don’t see them as often anymore. I miss them a lot. Reaching out today to tell them I love them.

I love this. I told my kids that I plan to be a grandmother one day, and if they choose not to have kids I will find one on my block who needs a bonus grandma!

This is so precious and made me tear up over my coffee. Just think how important you all have become to them?! we need human connection. So many lonely people in the world. Thanks for writing this!!

I’ve had many of these friendships in my life. One of my most treasured is some neighbors in their 80s when I was living and teaching in Japan. While my parents were visiting they got lost trying to make their way back to my apartment and Akiko came out and asked them in English if they were lost. Then, she invited them into her house for tea and snacks. From there I met them and regularly went to their house to cook, eat and watch Sumo on TV. She taught me to quilt and was a huge comfort when my dad died a few months later. Akiko said that in the 1960s when she and Taku had lived in Seattle they were welcomed with warmth by American neighbors and she has always tried to pass that along.

We have a neighbour like this who is like a grandfather to our kids. His name is Robert. He buys them treats, pushes them on the swing, helps them learn to ride their bikes. We have an adjoining property and Robert is always outside working. My kids open the windows sometimes to when they see him outside to have chats with him about their day. It’s the sweetest. Having more supportive and caring adults in my kids life is always a good thing.

A few changes in our family life led us back to our loft condo my husband and I bought before we had kids. Upon moving back in, we realized that our three young boys were the only children in the entire building. I panicked and made cookies for every neighbor on our floor, worrying most for our across-the-hall neighbor Kirk – a rather severe-looking older man with a serious demeanor, a pristine loft, and a large Bernese mountain dog named Beppi. I even added a note of apology “in advance” for the “rowdiness” that was about to invade his life. Two days later, we came home to a card on our door addressed to our boys. Inside, it read, “Be rowdy! – Kirk.” Since then, Kirk has become a favorite. He buys our boys candy for Halloween, gifts on Christmas, and always lets them hug Beppi and feed him as many treats as they want. Kirk is moving this summer (long time coming, not because of us!). I havent yet found a way to break the news to our boys.

My daughter and I had a very special relationship with the two ladies who ran a second-hand book shop below our old apartment. They saw me when I was pregnant, gave me big hugs after I delivered my baby, entertained my toddler, who just wanted to browse books, and chatted with my five-year-old. We recently moved 600 meters away, so we don’t see them every day anymore. We both miss them a lot, but we make sure to stop by their shop every once in a while. I would love to do it more often, but life as a single parent doesn’t allow for that much time. Friends who are also neighbors are rare, and I miss these two ladies who always had a smile and some encouragement to share.

I always love an excuse to wax lyrical about my best friend so… I started climbing at a ladies night at the local climbing gym and two months in our female instructor moved to Australia. I was aware of the gym manager an unusual, hairy quiet straight faced guy but I’d never spent much time with him. The last thing Maia said to me was “look after Mike”. I think I took it too literally and forced friendship on him. He took interest in my climbs, and made a PAS for me as a gift. He also set an entire room to help me progress, we started emailing and then texting in the evenings and eventually went for a pint one evening. He was much funnier than I’d realised and we started hanging out a lot outside of the gym. We’ve even been on holiday together to Europe and little camping trips around the UK to go climbing or to climbing events. It broke my heart when he quit to take a job in the US. Luckily for me he still lives here and comes home for a few weeks between jobs. We also facetime every week without fail and text most days. He is the kindest,most thoughtful friend I’ve ever had and I’m so lucky- I just wish he had a job closer by because now I know all those things I wish he was here all the time

Gosh, this post got me so much! It reminds me of the small kindness post from years ago. I think about that article every so often and likely will think of this one as well. Thank you so much for sharing. https://cupofjo.com/2018/04/12/small-kindnesses/

This is a very sweet cute-meet friendship with the neighbors. As someone who lives in an apartment building and works 9-5, it’s more difficult to form consistent friendships with neighbors. I think this worked because they were retirees!

Oh! This post reminded me so much of the children’s book, A Special Trade, about Nelly and Bartholomew, neighbors whose sweet intergenerational friendship changes as they both age. Jesse…what a gem!

My husband and I lived with my in-laws for a while and I became friends with their neighbor! Busy mom of 3 older kids, the oldest is definitely closer to my age than she is by a lot, but we became buds. One morning, she saw me crying on the porch talking to my husband because I’d had a bad night drinking and realized it was time to stop drinking altogether, and the next thing I knew I was telling her everything on her porch. She’s sober, and basically became my unofficial sponsor over the years-it’s actually become a fun thing now that I’m through the worst of it, trading mocktail stories but also having someone to text when I’m out and feel feelings about not drinking. I think often about how that all might have been different for me if she hadn’t been on her porch right at that moment! So lucky to have stumbled on many good neighbors over the years.

Being friends with your neighbors is the best. I have tea in my neighbor’s kitchen every Monday morning for 1 hour before work and I no longer dread Mondays!

This is the thing I love about life! Those wonderful people who just bring sunshine and casual conversation. They really do make you feel connected to a place. <3

I’m not crying you’re crying! the crackers! the sleigh! gaaahhhhh! Could Jesse be any sweeter?

Im a single mom with 2 boys and I moved into a new apartment last year, first floor of a house and one of the delights of this new home is my upstairs neighbor Walter who is 80 and lives with his granddaughter. He is so kind, we buy each other fruit, share meals, he asks about my boys and we just generally look out for each other. I hear him singing at night :) I dont think I have ever been this friendly with a neighbor and its so lovely and fills my cup.

This post is everything we need right now. More community, more kindness, more offering and accepting help, more giving, more befriending people different than us! Yes!!! <3

My neighbors and I constantly remind ourselves how lucky we are to live next to each other. All in different life stages (widow with adult children, parents of teens, parents of toddlers), all with different life stories, all full of love for each other. We share plants and gardening advice, everyone takes turns entertaining my 1 and 4 year old when we need a break, I get to ooh and ahh over the big kids’ life milestones. You don’t often know who lives in the house next to yours when buying a home, but boy did we hit the jackpot!

Our church is currently doing a series on Neighbourhood because the greatest commandments are to love god(dess) with all your heart and soul and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself. Every story like this makes me think that it is in doing the loving of our neighbours that we blur the lines between mundane and sacred and enter into the work that has the potential to last. Want to change the world? Love your neighbour. My parents befriended their aging neighbours John and Agnes after they were in a devastating car accident and showing up for them then led to ten years of friendship. They helped John grieve Agnes’ death, age in place, etc. and as I type this my parents are in Swanage spreading John’s ashes as they became his pseudo children towards the end. We need each other! Anyways! Inspiring. Thanks for sharing this post!!

The key to this is that Jesse was in his front yard. Start hanging out outside your home, read a book on your stoop, plant out some pots, a garden. Where I live, most people have shut themselves in their backyards but if you venture to the street people can’t help but chat to you.

When I was 6 in 1991, my mom and I lived in a tiny town in the middle of Wisconsin where my mom was the manager of the restaurant in the lobby of a hotel, with residential units on the top floor. We lived on that floor, the 6th, and all of our friendships in this town were unexpected: the 90-year-old woman down the hall, the only openly gay couple in the entire town who also owned a macaw, the sweet teenage waitresses and busboys who called me “good golly miss molly,” the front desk manager Joe, and so many others. We only lived there for a year, but I remember them all.

My dog makes friends for me. He is so much more outgoing than I am, and needs the social life of the off leash dog beach. Once there he sniffs logs for who else has been, runs, swims, puts his snout into people’s pockets (treat hunting). And over time people I have met there have changed from Ned’s owner, to Claire who I run to when I am afraid, or Wilbur’s mum to Mel, my ‘what am I ever going to do? friend’. We now have dinner, see exhibitions talk about EVERYTHING friends. My husband teases me that I was never great at making friends, I tended to find people who needed too much. But our dog, he finds the best sorts of people.

My most unexpected friendship is probably a former coworker who is 20+ years my senior. I’ve known him since I was a senior in college and he was roughly the age I am now. We’ve been friends for decades and stay in touch even though I moved away eons ago. Occasionally the thought occurs to me that — given our age gap — he will probably die before me and it’s almost more than I can bear. I’m really not great at making friends outside my comfort zone though. I would love more multigenerational friendships but I’m also pretty introverted and don’t always feel like engaging with people. My kids are great at it though. They’ve befriended an older lady down the street and like to help bathe her dog and work in her garden. She sometimes roller skates though the neighborhood with them so they think she’s just the coolest. :)

Aw this is so cute. I sell at the farmers’ market and the vendor next to me is SO GOOD at making friends with the little kids. I love watching them run up to her every week with joy in their eyes and she excitedly asks them questions about whatever is going on in their little kid lives. Then as they get a bit older she gets them to help in age appropriate ways. One of the joys of my job.

Oh my goodness, the sleigh!

This is the sweetest. I’ve been feeling envious over the neighborhood friendships in Shrinking! Could Jesse, Gabby, or Derek who pees over the deck please stop over!

When my husband and I were in our early 20s, we had just moved to New Zealand and we walked to our favorite local Indian grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. When we got there, the shop was closed. We were about to walk home, when a tall Indian man in a turban leaned out of the window of his car. He and his friend were trying to go to the same closed shop, and they offered us a ride to a different Indian shop. We hopped in the back seat and off we went. Nearly 20 years later, through breakups, marriages, baby showers, family traumas, kids’ birthday parties at their organic farm with water buffalo, we are still friends. It’s been a gift in our lives to have a window into Sikh culture, in addition to having their friendship. Our day to day lives are so insulted from the many cultures that coexist in our city. I’m grateful they offered to drive us to the shop that day, and I’m grateful we decided to hop into a stranger’s car :)

This is so heartwarming, but also so heart-confirming. You see, I’m in my 40s with no kids, and I’m finding that the space I occupy socially overlaps with a lot of folks in their 60s and 70s. It’s because I love all of those typical “grandma’ activites, like gardening, sewing, knitting, and civic engagement, and have the time outside of work to pursue these interests vigorously. Truthfully, I’d been feeling a bit weird about having so many retiree friends until I read this post. This has helped me see what a special place I’m really in.

I’ve performed improv comedy as a hobby on and off for close to 20 years now, and it’s brought so many good people into my life! For anyone looking to make new connections, I recommend taking some kind of non-fitness class — only because at the gym, you can’t generally chat with your classmates as much. Among my friend circle, we’ve variously had luck with classes in improv, ceramics, photography, gardening, and tying fishing flies.

I love this :) I’m unlikely to ever have grandkids of my own, but I look forward to being the neighbor who hands out strawberries and ritz crackers to the local kids.

This is so sweet! I’ve grown close with my 70 year old neighbor as well, through our dogs! They were puppies at the same time and got along, so we’d often hang in my fenced front yard as the dogs played and just shoot the breeze. She’s a tiny woman with impeccable style and incredible stories from her career as an artist, plus just a deep interest in everything. It felt like so little time before we were at the stage where we were talking easily about deep stuff, funny stuff, neighbor gossip, everything. I feel lucky to have those connections!

This post fills my heart and gives me hope.

This post made me tear up. So heartwarming! We need more of this in our world.

I love this Janelle. Thank you for sharing Jesse with us all. The biggest friendship gifts often look like someone in a different generation, gender, experiences, etc. They round us out and get us out of our own bubbles! Thank you for the reminder.

such a beautiful heartwarming post — i love this story!!

Jannelle, look what you did with just this one question: An embrace to all of us who miss humans, in our streets, in our homes, on our driveways or gardens actually sharing a good life together. Who would have thought that after Larry there is a new name to be added to the list to remember that a) good things exist and B) you can be one of those yourself: Jesse :)

what a sweetheart!

I became close friends with a coworker who was in her 50s when I was in my early 20s. I was living thousands of miles from home with a no-good for me boyfriend. She invited me over for dinner, let me do laundry at her house, and ultimately helped me leave him. Our long distance friendship of nearly two decades was one of the most profound of my life. She passed away this year and I hope she knew how much love she added to my life.

I was a busy stay at home mom in Seattle,SLC and Philly. You can build community anywhere you go. I’d often find myself aligning with the older generations as far as being out and about at the same times because if my kids schedules. When I lived in Seattle, there was Ron and his wife Ina. She’d bring me beautiful cut roses from her garden. Ron would watch the kids for a second if I needed to pop inside. In SLC, the neighbors were an entire family, with two little girls. The night my daughter came to be, their mother was the lovely angel who stayed in our house with our toddler son. In Philly, it was Peter, my mid 70s next door neighbor who emigrated from Korea. He was a spritely old man, often ageless in my mind, but sometimes I’d see his white roots peaking through. He grew so much food and flowers in his small garden, I was just amazed at how he did it all. He would share garden bounty with us, his favorite ramen, and the kids would draw him and his wife cards when we could not find something else to do. My husband would share our meals with them sometimes. They give us part of their dinner, and we’d give them part of ours. We moved away from Peter and I miss him so much!

My children generally take their time to open up to people, so it has been so fulfilling to watch my children form a special bond with our librarian. They send each other letters in the mail, bake special treats to share back and forth, and are just so genuinely happy to see each other!

Love this post!