Still in Shock

Okay, I'm kind of in shock and aw right at this moment.

I just received an amazing gift from my neighbour.

For those of you that don't already know my neighbour Jim just passed away a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't anything unexpected but it still wasn't easy seeing one of the nicest and most generous men I have ever met pass away. I was able to keep my emotions in tack most of the time however on a drive to work that day I lost it. I don't like showing my emotions in front of people and I guess I have always felt secure in a car.

Well now Ruth is left living all alone which can't be easy for her. I had already been helping out Jim & Ruth for quite some time, then Jim started to take a turn for the worse and then I increased my support for them, including taking out their garbage, taking Ruth to the beauty shop, picking up things from the store and helping prepare their lunch and what ever else I could do. I had also driven them to doctors appointments, and helped pick up prescriptions.

I believe that I took Jim & Ruth for lunch the last time they went out to eat together. It was after taking Ruth to the salon we went to the Beef House which was one of their favorite places to go. The thing with Jim & Ruth is that when ever you took them out for dinner they still insisted on paying. However this time I beat Jim to the check and I paid for lunch. Jim fussed and fussed until he finally agreed to let me pay for this one if he could leave me a tip at the restaurant the next time they were in. Well unfortunately do to his failing health they never did make it back in but we did bring him his favorite dish when he was in the Hospital as well as the Rehab center.

The thing is that they always wanted to pay me for what ever I did for them and I tried not to accept it. The thing is that I usually didn't win those arguments. The one that I did win was argument with Jim that he would buy me new tires for my car, or if I bought two he would buy the other two. This was something that we argued about for over a year.

The thing is that today their son came knocking on the door and handed us a card and thanked us for all we did and he had special instructions from his mom too say that this wasn't a payment for anything and that this is merely a thank you, and in no way were we to think of it as a payment for anything that we have done or may do, this was just a "thank you" and that we were just to accept it for that. Inside that card was a Check. I can't ever remember being given a gift like this. I'm still a little dumbfounded. I have opened up the card a few times thinking that maybe this is a dream, but its not.

Right now I'm a little emotional as I think Jim won that argument regarding purchasing me the tires and then some. Ruth was just the go between on this.