Im sitting in my living room waiting for my neighbor to die....
..Hes on hospice and his wife told the other neighbors he will more than likely pass today. He and his wife are in their early 70s.. my hubby and i not much younger. Neighbor Bill looked much older ...he was from Tennessee, rolled his own cigarettes, had a tough life. I never knew his political leanings but it didn't matter (altho I can guess who he supported) because he was a real neighbor to me...one I could always count on.
We have been neighbors for almost 25 years....not the kind where you have dinner together, play cards, bar b q or hang out....but the kind you call when you are just needing a neighborly hand. He was always there to help....got my mail for me on vacations, we fed their dogs for them, we called each other with wildlife sightings ( 'get your dogs inside theres a cougar, bear, rattlesnake etc) and when we observed the first hummingbirds to arrive in the spring etc.
We live miles from town deep in a canyon in the woods so we watch out for each other but don't get in each others faces. Only a handful of houses up here so even when any of us went the 15 miles into town we checked with one another if anyone 'needed anything'.
I knew he had cancer but I thought it had been beaten.. I probably talked to him just one time this year.
So I can see his house though the pine trees across the canyon. Hospice is there, his dtr is there. One neighbor is running a chain saw for some reason and I hear a lawnmower...its starting to rain. We are all just kind of watching and waiting. I assume if he passes there will be an official vehicle of some kind.
Godspeed Bill....
= new reply since forum marked as read
Always hurts to loose a good neighbor because I think they are part of our social fabric and mental security. Also best when politics never enters into the picture, just keeping life in the "real" stuff.
He was raised in the foothill mountains that adjoin the Appalachians to the west, during the Great Depression. He worked in timber most of his life and smoked most of that time until cancer got him, too. Eastern mountain folks are quite unique, I think and I have a lot of that in me.
My folks were not well off, and getting to go to the Smokies was a huge treat. No one but rich folks got to go to Florida, LOL.
During my younger years, smoking was the manly thing to do, and most farmers in my area in middle TN raised tobacco - so it was part of the culture (still is to a degree). Thank goodness, most everyone I know has now quit.
We all live and learn! Thanks again for posting that touching story. 
