Good Neighbors: Helping out in little ways have biggest impact
Good neighbors have a habit of watching out for each other in little ways.
But so often it’s the little things that end up meaning the most.
From the time Ganene Jordan and her family moved into their home on Warren Road 15 years ago, the Witters, Butch and Carolyn, have kept an eye out.
“She’s just a sweetheart,” Carolyn Witter said. “She’s the kind of person that you’d do anything for. We’ve watched her kids grow up.”
The Witters were there to welcome home the Jordans’ third child, and Butch Witter helped out with what she calls “manly chores” when her husband went on active duty in the military.
When Jordan got divorced, Butch continued to help with those manly chores – clearing the driveway when it snowed and mowing the front lawn whenever he mowed his own.
“Well, he has a riding lawn mower so it’s just as easy to mow both lawns as it is to do just one,” Carolyn Witter said. “And he has a snow blower, so it’s really no problem doing both driveways.”
It’s an extra excuse to play with his toys, she laughed.
“He’s spoiled my two sons,” Jordan said. “It’s their job to mow the lawn, and they love it when Butch does it for them. They love him for it.
“And you can’t really thank Butch. He won’t let you pay him or buy anything for him. And just saying ‘thank you’ doesn’t really cover it, you know?”
But Jordan didn’t understand the full extent to which the Witters were watching out for her until one Sunday morning when she heard the sound of hammering and creaking coming from her back deck.
“I went out there, and there they both were,” she said. “It wasn’t built very well to begin with, and it was starting to sag a little. They were afraid it was going to fall down with someone standing on it.”
“Oh, we didn’t do that much,” Carolyn Witter said. “We just jacked it up a little bit.”
Not much, perhaps, but it meant volumes to the Jordans.
“It means so much when someone does something like that for you,” Jordan said. “I can’t even express how that makes you feel.”
To the Witters, it’s just the kind of thing you do for a neighbor.
“She’s a single mom, and that’s a tough enough job,” Carolyn Witter said. “We like helping out when we can.”