I live in a nice neighborhood in a house I recently bought. It was important for me to try to get to know my neighbors because where I grew up this was just something people did. There is a comfort and safety to feeling as though your neighbors know you and everyone looks out for each other. Living by myself, I found this to be especially important and I was happy when I noticed that directly across the street from me was a sweet looking elderly lady. So far, I had only seen her come out of the house when a blue ford escort wagon pulled into the driveway, but I was determined to meet her and introduce myself.

A few more days passed and I noticed that everyday around 3:00 in the afternoon that same blue ford escort wagon would pull into her drive and she would hurry out and get in. She would return about an hour later, the blue ford escort wagon would drop her off and she would hurry back inside. I was baffled as to what this was all about because I never saw her taking packages or stuff out of the car so it was not likely that she was running errands. The next day I noticed some of the ford escort accessories on the blue car and realized that it was a pretty fancy ford escort wagon. I had to return to work the next day after my week off to move and settle in to my new house and I still had not met the lady across the street from me and it was starting to bother me.

Then later that evening I was out surveying my yard, planning on what landscaping I would do this spring and what could wait until the following year. My next-door neighbor came out and asked how things were going and if I was getting settled in yet. I responded politely but quickly used the opportunity to ask about the lady across the street. I explained that I wanted to go and introduce myself to her but that she always seemed to be rushing in and out when the ford escort wagon with the ford escort accessories showed up every afternoon.

My next-door neighbor smiled and told me about the woman across the street and how her grandson came over every day after school to take his grandmother for a ride in that blue ford escort wagon during the past year. Apparently, her husband had died a little over a year ago and he had just bought that car as a surprise for his wife, blue because it was her favorite color. He had intended on teaching her how to drive as she had never learned before and decided it was something she wanted to do before she died. He brought that ford escort wagon home and passed away the very next day. She gave the car to her grandson who was sixteen at the time and had just gotten his drivers license. He came over nearly every single day after school to take his grandmother for a ride out to the country where she could practice driving on the back roads. She would occasionally take him to buy ford escort accessories for the blue car that she loved so much because it reminded her of her husband.

I was so touched by the sweet story my neighbor told me that I decided not to worry about meeting her right away and that I would just wait until the opportunity presented itself. Instead, I just thought of how much I would smile every time I saw that blue ford escort wagon pull into her driveway.