There REALLY ARE nice people in the world

For the past three years I can count the number of times I have seen our neighbors down the hill... as a matter of fact, I can count on one finger the number of times they have been spotted. The middle-aged couple seem to come and go straight from their cars to the garage. They never spend time outside. The one time my mother-in-law saw the husband, she smiled and he growled right at her. I set cookies at their front door once. No response. We have joked for the past three years about how grumpy and mysterious they seem.

On Sunday there was a huge wind and hail storm. Our friend Ernie came for dinner. When he arrived he noted that there was a huge tree that had blown down onto our mystery neighbor's driveway. There was no way a car could get in or out. I immediately thought, "Wow! A chance to meet our neighbors!" Since we have a chainsaw, I encouraged Doug and Ernie to go over and ask them if they needed help removing the enormous tree. They went over, rang the doorbell. Nothing.

When they returned home defeated, I was still bound and determined to help. There was something inside of me that wouldn't let it go. I got online and found their phone number. Doug called. He told the husband of the tree. Doug explained that we had a chainsaw and could hellllllll.... well... he never got to finish the sentence as the man gruffly interupted, coldly thanked him for the info and hung up midsentence.

Still.... I held back judgment. I knew there was no way they could move the tree alone... short of calling a tree removal service.

We waited. We saw them from our window examining the tree. Then.... DING DONG! The doorbell was like the sound of angels. "FINALLY!" I thought to myself. And there she was... the wife I knew existed but had never met. She apologized profusely for having not answered the door when the boys rang. She politely introduced herself and asked for our help. "YES!" I eagerly said!! We introduced ourselves and the guys went to work. Boy did they work! Doug came home dripping in sweat.

When the husband thanked Doug, my dear hubbie said, "It's nothing more than what I would want someone else to do for me or my folks!" Our neighbor seemed genuinely shocked that there was anyone in the world who would offer help to another without a selfish motive. Doug ended up accepting a quart or two of gas from the man only because he knew our neighbor wanted to give back.

I felt so proud of my Doug and our friend Ernie for helping. It would've been easy to ignore them. After the years of ignoring we'd received from them, the grumpiness, and rude phone call, etc. But in the end we met a really nice couple who simply keep to themselves, who appear to have lost a lot of hope in humanity, and who needed to know there are still good people in the world who house a true Christlike spirit of service.

Way to go Doug Daley!