Mimi lives in a two bedroom apartment in a North American state with her son of 30 months old. She shares the flat with a middle aged gentle man called Lu. It’s a block of 4 flats, and one of her neighbor whose flat is directly below Mimi’s is a white senior. He Lives all by himself and in the summer months, sat outside on his nice comfortable chair with his walking stick beside him. When he is not sleeping or eating, you will always meet him outside, looking around for interesting things to see. Mimi has just started living here and would always like to say hello to this old man. On the first day that Mimi met him, she said hello, but instead of him to answer, he responded by saying hello buddy to Mimi’s son. You know toddlers; they are friendly to everyone as long as you can be their play mate. Some of his usual conversation with Mimi’s son are
The senior: Hi buddy. How are you
Mimi’s son: Hi. I’m good. What a very smart boy
The man: You’re going out?
Mimi’s son: Yes
The man: OK. Bye buddy
Mimi’s son: Bye!
Mimi’s son became so fond of this senior to the extent that, it became a regular thing to play with his new friend every time he was going out with his mum. The weather is not friendly now and so Mimi does not see her son’s friend around anymore. He was always indoors, but would come outside to pick his messages including daily fruit deliveries. One thing that is certain is once the delivery man dropped his orders, in about half an hour, the parcel or fruit would have been taken in. This indicated that he was okay. On a day in the winter month, Mimi was on her way to work and she noticed that the fruits and parcel from the previous day were still at his door step. This is strange, Mimi thought. She called the attention of his flat mate Lu who attested to the fact that it was unusual for the man not to pick his parcels. They both thought of going to knock at his door, but the man never responded to any one of them when they greeted him. By the evening of that day, another delivery person who happened to be a white lady showed up at his door and met Lu on his way out to work. This conversation ensued.
Lu: Hi. I think you need to knock on his door, because we noticed that the previous day’s delivery is still out here
The delivery lady: Yeah. I can see that. This is unusual. The lady agreed.
Lu decided to knock very hard on his door and a very faint and low voice was heard from his flat, but no one showed up at the door to open it. Lu decided to peep through his window. Alas! The man was on the floor and could not move. At this time, they needed to act fast. Lu went to the apartment maintenance office to report the case while he also called 911. In about 5 minutes, the ambulance arrived. As they were about to break in to take him to the hospital, the maintenance officer came promptly and brought the spare keys to his flat. The door was opened and the man was lying helplessly on the floor. He had recovered from a stroke in the past and was prescribed medication. For unknown reasons, he had another stroke, but this time no one was around to help him. He must have been in that state for 24 hours or more. The man was taken to the hospital promptly. Thank God for a good neighbor even when the man did not show any kindness or respect to them. As at this time, the man is still at the hospital. May God lessen his pain and heal him of his illness amen.
Brethren! Be good to your neighbor, whether you are of the same or different race, color, and sex. It does not matter. We are all brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends everywhere and anywhere we are.
Folks! Always pay attention to the situation around you, no matter how busy you are. You may save somebody’s life or save someone from a calamity. Be your neighbor’s keeper.
