My elderly neighbor died — after his funeral, I received a letter from him that said: “You must dig up the secret in my yard that I’ve been hiding from you for 40 years. You deserve to know the truth.”

Our biggest neighborhood arguments are usually about whose dog dug up someone’s flowers or whose kid left their bike in the driveway.

Next door lived Mr. Whitmore.

When we moved into our house, he was already there. I remember him telling Richie once that he’d been living in that small place for nearly thirty years.

He lived alone.

No family visits. No loud holidays. No cars ever pulling into his driveway.

But he was always kind.

If he saw me struggling with groceries, he would quietly walk over and carry the heavy bags inside.

If something in the yard needed moving, he’d appear with his gardening gloves before I even asked.

Every Christmas morning there was always an envelope in our mailbox.

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