Re: Things that made your day.
Five years ago, I was doing my usual bicycle ride around my town when I came to a house where an old man(he was 61 as I later learned) was struggling with setting up a ladder to clean his gutters. I called out to him asking if he needed help and he said yes, so I stopped and helped him with the ladder. He went into his garage to get something and I said I could help him clean the gutters if he wanted, because I didn’t think he could do it himself(and the fact that I could simply scamper onto the roof and get it from the top instead of him moving the ladder every 5 minutes), and he accepted so I did his gutters for him and also picked up the piles I had tossed down. He offered me $20 for the help and I refused, and he offered me a cold beer which I also refused. He then asked if there was anything he could get me, and I said a glass of ice water would be payment enough, which he got.
His wife came out and thanked me and asked my name which I gave her, and she then asked for my address, which I gave as well. A couple months later I got a christmas card in the mail from them, so I returned the favor, and we sorta became friends, writing to each other via email or talking on instant messenger. 3 yrs ago she wrote me saying their only child and his wife had been killed in as car accident, and that they were gaining custody of their 4 yr old son, and asked if I could help them set up a room in their house for the kid, which I had no issues with, and while doing it, the wife said she didnt want to bother me and feel free to say no, but she asked if I could accompany her to Seattle because the husband is afraid of flying. I told her I need to talk to my wife first before answering and I asked my wife and she said go for it so I did. We get to Seattle and get the kid and fly back home two days later.
That year, they invited my family over for Christmas and we went and they had to have spent at least $2K on gifts for us and our kids(we of course got them gifts as well, but not as nice of gifts as they got us), and when I went outside to smoke, the husband came out and and said that I shouldn’t feel bad about what happened because they wanted to thank us for everything we had done for them that year, and they didn’t expect anything in return. We stayed in touch with each other(I went over once a week to mow their lawn, clean their gutters, clear the driveway/sidewalk/mailbox of snow in the winter), sending cards, etc until early this year when the husband died. A couple weeks after the funeral, I got a phone call from the wife asking if the wife and I could come over sometime that week to talk. We get there and after an hour or so of reminiscing about life and playing with her grandson, she put him to bed, and came back with some envelopes. She told us to open them and inside of them were checks written out to us in the amount of $50K, and she said that is what her husband had wanted because we had become like children to them and that he loved us like he had loved his own son, and she felt the same way. We tried to refuse the money, but she wouldn’t let us refuse it. We left and a week later she called us on the phone and said that the checks had not cleared yet and when I told her that we don’t feel right taking money she may need, she cut me off and said that she had no money issues and that is what he wanted and to please do it to honor him. So we cashed the checks.
Through all of this, my youngest kids and her grandson all became great friends(I even got her grandson to attend the same private school my kids go to) and my kids call her grandma and we all act like we are one big family doing things together. This summer, when I went to my family reunion, I brought her and her grandson because as far as I am concerned, she is family to me.
I mentioned all of that because yesterday, she called me up and asked me if we would have any issues with her changing her will naming me as executor and naming us guardians of her grandson if she were to die before he is 18. It made my day to be given such an honor.