tears...

when we moved in our house Malachy was a little over 1 and very attached to me...she was on my hip and went to pretty much no one!  My mom and I were unpacking and we heard a knock on the garage door... a sweet man with a wonderful smile introduces himself as our neighbor and Mally (on my hip) reaches for him!  He takes her and holds her a bit still talking to us and she is happy as can be!  From that point on, she ran to him whenever he was outside.  She learned to open the front door and would try to run to him each time he drove up his driveway.  As she got older she climbed to the top of the backyard fort to greet him as he came and went...she and the others as they were little til present would go over after school almost everyday and he would give them m&ms!  They would sit on his front porch and visit.  We would take him plates of leftovers and he comes to birthdays...he even let us live in his house a month while we renovated because he was going to be out of town (he insisted on it and would not take no for an answer!)  The boys do his yard...Mr. Jimmy never had grandkids so we were his grandkids!
this past weekend out of the blue he tells me that he is moving to a retirement home...this week.  He says that he would have done it years ago if it wasn't for us and he has been unsure of how to tell us.  I cry and then prepare myself to tell the girls and the rest of our family.  We all spent the weekend in tears and tried to think of some way to make him stay...which I know is selfish, he is 92 and has been alone so long...I know we can still see him and visit and he can come here, but it makes my heart ache as I walk past his house and know he isn't there.

We survived the goodbyes and are so thankful we had the gift of him as our neighbor for so long...

mally and mr jimmy when mally was 6...

nora hanging out with mr jimmy on his front porch talking...she was about 2 or so...