"Farewell Good Neighbor"

All my life growing up across the street was my neighbor Mr. Flynn think Mr Anderson from Beavis and Butthead and Wilson from Home Improvment combined with the the mouth of a sailor (when kids aren't around) and the old school Irish-American attitude. Pretty much everyday going back to my earliest childhood memories he was across the street working in the yard, or with his garage in his "shop" working on something. Or maybe fixing something.

Although most my neighbors usually don't talk to each other my father and him talked almost everyday. Maybe on the way to get the paper or to exchange ideas on how to get one more summer out of a lawnmower, or to exchange tools or help each other on projects.

Back in the day thanks mainly to the privacy that I got from my parents my house was the hang out. At least until we figured out something to do with the night. So many of my friends had some point met Mr. Flynn. Usually when I unwisely locked myself out of the house.

He did everything you could ask a neighbor to do when our family was away. Bring in the papers, the mail. Just generally look after things. He had lived there when my aunt and uncle owned the house (who obviously sold it to my parents) and ironically he and his wife shared the same name as my parents.

A Korean war vet, and generally a good guy, would be quick to tell me a joke or ask about what was going on with my life. Basically a standard in growing up. He would be there in his yard or shop just as gartuned as the trees in my front yard. He would ask me about school or about my work.

Sadly, I was told this afternoon when I was invited over for dinner by my parents that he went to the hospital last Thursday and was diagnosed with lung cancer which had spread to his kidney and liver. They had given him 2-3 months to live.

Oddly, enough before that he was seemingly fine still walking about to two miles a day, and walking across the street to socialize with my father.

When I got home for dinner tonight my parents told me he passed away this afternoon. Just like that he was gone. Granted he was in his mid-70's, but it still seemed out of the blue since he basically showed no symptoms till last week. Apparently there was no stopping the cancer.

It's funny when you are young and a kid you kind of think things will always stay the same. Even when you get older and move out at least I hope constants in my life will still be there. You will just get older. Sadly life doesn't work that way at all. It would be nice if your life was a syndicated sitcom so when you got home sick for the way things were or people that are no longer around.

I am sure my neighborhood will never be the same without him. He was more than to us he was a friend of the family. Given he was there so long. It might seem strange that I have written this since most of readers barely met the guy if at all. But I don't know it made me think about some day like it or not I will lose many others that are important to me. Maybe its losing two people I knew pretty well suddenly in the span of 6 months. Writing this its not so much extreme sadness. He lived a good life. Just a sense of loss. If you are still actually reading and don't understand what I mean, unfortunately one day you will.