Neighbor and Friends
Friends.
Are you growing or just growing older.
I just got back from visiting my 93 year old neighbor in the hospital. It is so hard to see my friend and neighbor slipping from the strong vibrant farmer I have always known. He has been my neighbor for the last 33 years. I watched him farm and I have watched him raise two fine young men who have grown into my new neighbors and farmers.
My neighbor was expanding his farm at a time in his life when many people are retired and living on the golf course or going south in the winter. He purchased several hundred acres when he was in his seventies. This takes a lot of faith in your abilities to keep the farm going and in the next generation. He had a firm belief that the land was a better investment than the stock market.
As I leave his room I wonder what is next for this WWII veteran. Will he survive the next surgery? Will he be able to return home? And the big question, will he be able to get back on the tractor. He drove tractor last year and this gave him strength to face another long winter.
Are you growing or just growing older? My neighbor was always growing and I never thought of him growing older. Thanks for being a friend.
You post has touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. We go along in our life and worry about the things that don’t really matter, then when I read a post like yours I am ashamed by my selfishness. To just sit and listen to the stories your neighbor could tell would be a priceless moment. He knows what it is like to work for something so hard and deserving what you have worked so hard for.
Your neighbor will be in my prayers everyday, I pray that he will come home and get on his tractor again, and maybe I will be blessed enough to meet this man someday.
This brought back memories of my Great Uncle Leslie. He farmed 500 + acres on the family farm in Innisfail Alberta. His whole life was his farm. He took so much pride in what he grew. He plowed his fields until the day he went to be with the Lord. He was in his 90’s. He was a great inspiration to me and I always remember him.
I drove for your neighbor when I was 18, he needed an extra truckdriver and my father told Leonard he thought I could handle the job! That is when it all started in this community, Driving for neighbors & their neighbors and next thing ya know I was driving over the road hauling commodity’s around the country. It was a great oppourtunity to see parts of the United States & Canada I would never have traveled to otherwsie. Thankyou Garry for posting your thoughts on our neighbor.
Jan,
He is not doing so well. They removed a leg and now the nursing home is closing. I wonder where he is going next month. Garry