A Farewell to Good Neighbors

Every neighborhood has its heartbeat - not a sound, but a presence.
Sometimes it’s a wave across the street, a kind word shared at the mailbox,
or the steady comfort of knowing someone kind lives just next door.

For our little corner of the world, that heartbeat has been Pat and Marty.
They are moving east now, back toward family and familiar places,
carrying with them the laughter and warmth they’ve quietly woven into our days.

I didn’t know them as deeply as I wish I had.
Life, with all its turns and tender obligations, often keeps us occupied.
Yet even from a distance, I felt the goodness of who they are:
their gentle way of belonging, of caring, of connecting others.

Good neighbors are a rare gift.
They remind us that community is built not just by proximity, but by care,
by the warmth of those who quietly hold it together.

Good neighbors do more than live beside us;
they soften the world a little.
They remind us that kindness doesn’t always arrive in grand gestures;
sometimes it’s simply there, steady and true.

As they begin this new chapter,
I wish them peace, health, and days touched by love.

As they go, my heart goes with them in gratitude and in hope
that they know somewhere out west,
a small neighborhood is a little quieter,
and a little emptier,
because of how much they mattered here.