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I live in a condo building. Most of the people in the building I could really give a rat's ass about, but the man that lived across the hall from us was one of the nicer people in the building.
He was Polish and spoke very little English, but was truly one of the nicest people you ever wanted to meet. He was always smiling, would stop to say hello. If he knew you were waiting to use the washer/dryer, he would knock on your door to let you know he was done. Just all around, a nice guy.
He didn't drive. Whether if this was by choice or means, I don't know but you always saw him off peddling around doing his errands. It didn't matter if it was hotter than hell out or 20 below zero and snowing, there he was on his bike.
We noticed we hadn't seen him around for a few days, but given the holiday season, we just assumed he was visiting family or maybe took a vacation. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
We found out from our condo president he was in the hospital. He was in ICU. It turns out he was Diabetic and apparently it was a bit out of control. One lung had collapsed. They tried to give him the H1N1 vaccine, but his body was rejecting it. She said that it really didn't look good, that about all anyone could do for him was pray. Concerned about him, I did just that.
Monday, when I came home from work there was a notice on the front bulletin board. He had passed away. I kind of stood there in shock. I couldn't believe it. Sure, people die. Fact of life I know, but it just stunned me. He was always so active and seemed to be in relatively good health. Mom and I went to the wake, paid our respects and pretty much are still dazed by the whole thing.
Today as I was doing some laundry, his door opened. I stopped half expecting to see him walk out. Obviously, he didn't. It was some family members. They had bags of garbage. They politely smiled and went down the hall to throw out the trash. I went into my unit and started to fold my clothes. I happened to glance out the window and the tears just started falling.
There was his bike in the back of their pick up truck. It really hit hard that there wasn't going to be any more friendly hellos. Or smiles as he held the door open as he saw you coming in the door. Or knocks on the door to let you know you the washer was free. Or soft chuckles as you saw him budled up, riding down the street covered in ice and snow to go wherever it was he needed to go.
Sometimes it just doesn't seem fair that the nice ones are taken from us but the assholes get left behind. Granted, we were only neighbors but he was one of those people that you some times are lucky to encounter that make you realize the world isn't so fucked up and a not such a bad place to be.
Hopefully, wherever he is now, he's peddling down a sunny street, smiling and waving to people as he goes by.
