Love Thy Neighbor

We have all heard the phrase "Love Thy Neighbor" and we all know we should but sometimes it's hard to do. When we first moved here the house next door was empty. Shortly after, we got new neighbors. We thought they were kind of strange and the daughters drove us a little nuts! They always had their friends over and since there was no side fence on our front yard, they were always in our yard and climbing up our tree. It was annoying. The guy who lived next door was strange too. We couldn't figure him out. One time he was out washing his car with the radio so loud I could hear every word of it INSIDE my house. The first couple of songs were rap songs and I just kept thinking, "Um, your 40, not 14!" Then the rap music turned into a country song which made me laugh. What a strange guy! Then one day Cody had the hood popped on our car and after about a year of them living next door and us never even saying hello, he came over!

"Do you need help with your car?" He asked. Cody had already called triple A. The battery had died and we just needed a jump. They ended up talking for 30 minutes or so and that's how it started. It wasn't constant at first but after another year or so of coming over and saying hi every once in a while ( and his daughters still driving me nuts ) they moved. We were glad to have the daughters off of our grass and out of our tree. We were also glad he only moved one house away! haha That way he was still around to help out. THEN his niece moved in next door and the real trouble began, but also our friendship really began to bloom. Cody always needed help with things around the house and Dale was always willing to help. If he himself didn't know how to do it, then he knew someone who did and would call and get them to come over for us. When Cody was leaving to go to Iraq for 6 months and Tyler and I were going to stay in Utah, he offered to keep the grass mowed for us. Then about 3 days before I was leaving for Utah, our roof started to leak. Dale called over a couple different people he knows who do roofs and then offered to help out and make sure it got done and got done right AFTER I left. He even drove an hour away and picked up all the supplies to save us some money. What a guy.

When we got back from Utah we decided to re-do our back porch. He called over some guys who gave us a bid and then they started. They knocked out our entire back wall, left and never came back. So Dale called MORE people and got a crew of guys to come over and take over, including himself. After it was built, he came over and painted the inside of the porch and helped Cody put in the lights. He was over a LOT and his wife came over a couple of times too. Dale became like one of our family in a way.

While we were in Utah and Cody was in Kentucky this past month, Dale was riding his motorcycle without a helmet and got hit. He fell back and smacked the back of his head on the pavement. At first it seemed like he had a couple of broken bones and some head trauma. Then a day or two later they noticed he had some internal bleeding in his head and lungs. Last we heard was that he was brain dead. We are very sadden by this. We are going to miss him very much.

There have been a couple of times we were talking about something that we needed help with and I think Cody and I were both thinking the same thing, "Dale would help if he were here." I keep thinking about his wife and kids. His girls are both in high school. I can't imagine what it's like for them or his wife. We are going to miss our neighbor so much. I hope he knows how much he was appreciated and how we thought of him as part of them family. I hope we were as good of a neighbor to him and he was to us! We love you and will miss you greatly Dale! To everyone else who knows someone who rides a motorcycle make sure they wear their helmet! There is NO REASON to NOT wear one. If he had he would probably still be here.