Under the Sun

My parents live on the same Old Westmont street where I lived out my childhood. My next door neighbor growing up was Eleanor. On this President's Day, she was laid to rest.

Eleanor was not just my friendly neighbor. She was my bonus grandma.  Her home was Indiana Street's safe haven where kids sipped on lemonade and parents enjoyed an evening coffee. Her backyard was a baseball diamond for dozens of boys and girls for going on two decades. In college, my friends and I drifted back to Eleanor's baseball oasis. Not ready to grow up, we blasted tennis balls into the summer sun and across the street.

When my mom told me she had passed away, memories of that Johnstown childhood flooded back. Eleanor moved away from her Indiana Street home years prior, but her legacy lives on. Many of her neighbors paid their respects this weekend. It was story after story of the nice neighbor who helped make a street become a family.

Building a family of my own today, I realize how important it is to be a good neighbor. There are so many people from my Indiana Street era that made my childhood a positivity building block. At Eleanor's service, a familiar Corinthians scripture was read. As I listened, it was a passage that I associated with weddings, not goodbyes. But Eleanor, a proud Johnstown resident, was all about love and inviting people in. It was not a goodbye reading. It was an eternal hello.

And after all the years of running in her backyard, I don't know if Eleanor and I ever saw a sun scorched February day like this one. As I stood on that cemetery ground, dozens of kids could be heard in the distance, attacking a playground with childhood abandonment. I smiled. It was perfect.

My daughter did not get a chance to meet Eleanor, but I've got stories to tell. The positivity blocks continue to be built.