Poet Ana Monnar once said, “All human beings are my neighbors. We share the same planet.”
While it’s not a requirement to love your neighbor, being a good and kind person to them – and everyone around you – is a policy we should all live by. Kristin and Adam Polhemus lived next to a delightful older woman, Anne Glancey. The retired teacher loved her home, but unfortunately, the years and Mother Nature had not been kind to the crumbling Colonial. Despite multiple offers to help her fix it up, Anne always turned the couple down.
Facebook
But one day, Anne got a terrifying notice in the mail. The town’s Neighborhood Improvement Program was threatening to fine her because the paint was peeling on the exterior of her house. The bill? Three thousand dollars!
Anne, unsure of how she would pay the fine or fix her house – the elderly woman couldn’t do any manual labor herself – reached out to her kind neighbors. That’s when Kristin and Adam put a call out on Facebook for others who would be willing to help.
Facebook
And boy did people care!
People started commenting they would be there. When the weekend rolled around, Kristin and Adam – and Anne – were blown away by all the support their neighbors showed.
Facebook
Twenty-five people showed up in support of a woman many of them had never even met!
Facebook
Kristin wrote on Facebook, “Twelve hours of work yielded piles and piles of bundled brush lining the street, a completely scraped home, scraped shutters, and primer on *one whole side* of our neighbor’s house.”
Facebook
Facebook
“We were surrounded today by our very favorite kinds of people; the ones who challenge us to love harder, and who give of their (rare and precious) free time selflessly.”
Facebook
After the second day of work, the once-decrepit building looked like a brand-new home.
Kristin once again took to Facebook saying, “A little love goes a long way, and just a little scraping, primer, and light carpentry have done a world of difference not only for this little historic home, but for a neighbor’s heart.”
Facebook
In the end, Anne didn’t have to pay the fine. Adam estimates that the repairs they did on her home would have cost her $10-15,000! And the act of kindness wasn’t lost on the elderly neighbor, “I’m grateful for their helpfulness, generosity and caring…They’re good neighbors,” Anne said.
Share if you think this was the ultimate way to be neighborly!
Want to be happier in just 5 minutes a day? Sign up for Morning Smile and join over 455,000+ people who start each day with good news.