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Like a good neighbor
Author: TriSec    Date: 08/31/2019 09:45:45

Good morning.

A cataclysmic event is taking place around the ol' TriSec compound next weekend. To be sure, Javi is moving away to college, but that's not all.



In May of 1996, about a month and a half ahead of our wedding, I moved into our apartment here in Waltham. Mrs. TriSec was a constant visitor as we set about setting up a home together.

At the time, Gardencrest was the premier apartment complex in this city. It's existed since the end of WWII, and at the time it was family-owned and operated. There was even a waiting list that we somehow managed to leapfrog, due to some of Maria's connections at the time.

As the saying went - "You got into Gardencrest!" was a status symbol at the time.

Alas, like everything on this Earth, things change. The family patriarch eventually passed on, the ladies in the front office eventually retired, and the next generation was just not interested in running the place. It was sold off to the highest bidder, and things have been steadily deteriorating ever since.

Twenty-three years later, Gardencrest is tired, worn-out, and full of transients and growing crime. Long-term residents like us are increasingly the exception rather than the rule.

But one constant has remained - our neighbor, Elizabeth. She is about 20 years older than Mrs. TriSec and I, but nevertheless we made connections to her very soon after moving here.

She's been with us through everything. Sickness, health, cancer, deaths, job upheavals, bankruptcy, you name it - she's been a constant presence. She was there through all of Javi's life, like a kindly European Aunt, and she was even our pet-sitter for the last few years. But now she's moving away.

Elizabeth is not a native American. She hails from Poland, and has been a chemist for a local pharmaceutical company for decades. She nearly left two years ago, but we managed to convince her to stay for another two years.

This time, it's for real. But it's not like she's heading to a retirement community, or even Florida. Nay, she is returning to her native Poland to live with her Brother and ride off into the sunset like we all must do.

It perturbs me very much that I can say with some finality that we'll never see her again.

Now we face an uncertain future with our next-door unit. We could have another great neighbor, it could remain vacant for months, or we could wind up with something in-between.

A great baton is being passed. Javi will take his and run towards his future, while Elizabeth 'goes home' to meet her eventual end. I guess that makes us the "Old Guard" now.
 
 

1 comments (Latest Comment: 09/02/2019 12:25:31 by BobR)
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