Originally Posted by jplinville

When I bought a house in Kettering, I noticed that the 96 year old man across the street never had any visitors of any kind, and that his grass was growing tall. My kids and I started cutting his grass and generally caring for him with fixing his gutters, shaving his front door down so that it will open, going to the store for him, etc...I would change the oil in his car, and take him places if he needed. He only had one leg, losing the other in WWII to a mine.

2 years later, my house caught fire and burned to the ground. The community pulled together, donating many needed items to us. I had to relocate to the other side of town to live with my parents while my daughter recovered in the hospital. I had made arrangements with my brother to continue to care for Charlie while I was otherwise busy with the hospital. When she finally came out, I finally had time to sit down and inspect the garage full of items and cards and letters.

In the pile of envelopes was a rather large and heavy yellow legal style envelope. In it was a title to Charlie's car, the keys, and $10k in cash. He had it sent to my parents house 2 days after the fire. 2 weeks later, he passed away.

I had not known it at the time, but Charlie was a Freemason, like myself. In the note he wrote, he said that he had noticed my ring and badge on the vehicle I drove. He said that he had nobody to leave his car to, nor anyone to give his savings to, and that he felt it very fitting that I get those, as i was a brother in need at the time, and that since I gave so freely of my time and effort to someone I barely knew, that he felt I was very deserving. The house went up on the auction block a month later, and the proceeds went to different Masonic charities he heavily donated to over the years, as per his wishes.

His lodge learned of what had happened, and presented me his Bible and ring, which I wear on occasions.

I really miss the old guy. Charlie was a wealth of information of the area, as he built his house right after the war and never moved. His eyes witnessed so many things that we take for granted. He worked for Charles F Kettering at NCR, and later at DELCO, and had many great stories to tell about the man and his work ethics.