Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm pretty exhausted. This week has had a biblical theme of flooding. Our basement flooded Sunday, with some heavy rain, but then a couple of days later, with a much lighter rain, it flooded again. We had Roto Rooter out at midnight, and finally, Thursday, someone came from the plumbing service we use, and quoted an apalling amount of money to tear up the sidewalk next to our house on one side and do a fix. They promised to begin tomorrow. We nevertheless managed to decorate our house for the holidays, in a reduced style, and with the help of our daughter. A few more lights on the porch and we'll be done. I even bought six new ornaments yesterday, just for the heck of it. They are wool felt, and happily unbreakable by the grandsons. Yesterday a card came from a neighbor from thirty some years ago. Her husband, who was a dear heart, died of ALS. When we lived next door to them he often used his tractor to plow and pile the manure from our horse Lu, and did many helpful, neighborly things. Their daughter babysat for us, and has grown to be a rock solid support for her parents during this agonizing illness. The family was all that you'd want in a neighbor and more. The mother would take chokecherries from our yard and make jam and wine and give it to us. She was a nome ec teacher until she retired, and could sew, bake, decorate, the whole nine yards. She has made hundreds of masks since Covid to help people. Some people are a joy to know, and warm your heart, and theirs was such a family.