I was home caring for my dad, who had shoulder surgery. My daughter and husband were in Los Angeles at a swim meet for the weekend (son in college). I had to pick up my dad’s meds at the pharmacy and I told him not to leave the recliner we had rented for his recovery — placed in front of the TV.
When I returned, he was on the floor. Of course, he didn’t listen to me and didn’t stay put.
“I can’t get my dad off the floor!” I called my husband on his cell. After numerous attempts with Dad, neither one of us made an inch of progress.
In the background, I heard my daughter say “Call Mr. Siffleet!”
Of course, why hadn’t I thought of that? Karl was married to one of my close friends who lived less than a mile away. They had a daughter who went to kindergarten through high school with my daughter. Karl and my husband swam 5:30 a.m. Masters together.
Within minutes, Karl came over, picked my dad up as though he was a bag of potatoes and placed him comfortably in his chair. Thank you, Karl!
I can’t remember all the things Karl did for us during the decades we lived in that home. But what I do remember is going to a post-op appointment after knee surgery about thirty minutes away. I realized I left the stove on for vegetable soup I was cooking.
Yikes! I called Karl and he came over to the house, turned off the stove — and put the burnt pot outside.
Yes, this family had a key to our house. They even took care of Olive the cat while we were on vacation.
Another time, our swim team was hosting a meet at the city pool. We had an extensive set up of pop-up tents constructed from poles and tarps, tables, electronic timing equipment, scoreboard, snack bar, grills, timing chairs, etc. We’d have more than 1,000 people to host at swim meets for a three-day weekend — including swimmers and family members.
One morning, my husband (who was Mr. Meet Manager) arrived at the pool at dawn to find tons of equipment in the pool. We blamed the skaters from the next-door skate park. But it could have been any gang of hoodlums. My husband called (I was comfortably asleep in bed) and asked me to drive our daughter to the pool. Karl also showed up — probably to help with set up — and they dove in and retrieved equipment from the bottom of the deep end, hours before the meet began.
I miss living near Karl and his family. I’m glad we are still in touch, but I really miss a neighbor like Karl who always came to the rescue! He was our local superman.
What have your neighbors done for you when you needed help? Do you play that role with any neighbors?
What a joy to have a neighbor like Karl. We’ve been fortunate to have neighbors/friends everywhere the hubs and I have lived. That sense of community – the nearness of folks to help out in an emergency (just as you described with your dad) or an almost-emergency (food left on the stove). Such a blessing to know you can call someone who can be there in a beat or two. I think I treasure all of that now because I didn’t experience much of it growing up. We were always on the move and I romanticized how nice it would be to stay in place long enough to build relationships with kind neighbors. Cheers to you for the beautiful memory — and good golly. What a stunner of a house. 😎
It was nice to have friends and neighbors close by. We were connected through our kids and the swim team. Karl is such a kind unassuming person. Yes, I loved our home of 28 years. It was so unique and had gorgeous views. We were one block from restaurant and shops. But in many ways it wasn’t practical. I could write a whole post about the house!
I would read that! A whole post about the house, that is. And thanks for the info below about the hurricane’s impact in your reply to Deb. I was wondering about that, too. But a hurriquake? Good grief!
Between the idiosyncrasies of the old house, memories and homeless guy who believed it was his house, I think I could come up with something. I was on edge watching news about Hilary when the earthquake hit!
Too much going on at once, I say. Too much! Sending Monday morning hugs. 🥰
I can always use your hugs!
Love that…here come a couple more…just because! 🥰🥰🥰
💕
In my condo building, we’ve all grown beyond being able to pick someone up off the floor. We leave that to the wonderful folks at the fire department who welcome the opportunity to do the honors. God bless them!
The fire department was an option that never occurred to me!
For nyc, my floor is really tight. I’d say with the exception of one neighbor, the rest of us totally pitch in, including getting groceries and general help for our elderly neighbor. I realize how lucky we are
That’s so nice. I must be prejudiced, but I wouldn’t think of that in a big city.
It’s not normal at all so I’m thrilled
So I wasn’t being prejudiced. You’re very fortunate.
What a blessing it was to have such kind and helpful neighbors/ friends.
He was so helpful. It was reassuring to have a friend and neighbor like that.
Must’ve been. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
😊
🥰
It’s great to have a neighbor or two that you can trust especially in emergencies. I don’t have that now, although my son has a key but he’s 30 minutes away. Was Palm Springs impacted by the hurricane that just came through? I keep hearing about LA but nothing else on the local news.
Roads were closed and flooded but I haven’t heard of major damage. It was less rain than predicted. We got light rain at the beach. But what scared me was the earthquake in Ojai. They were calling it a hurriquake.
LOL! It definitely was an oddly timed coincidence to have that earthquake right alongside a hurricane!
I was upstairs in the little house we are renting and it swayed! Then my phone went off in the awful warning alarm.
Karl sounds like such a great neighbor. My parents built their current home 30 years ago and most of their neighbors are still the original owners, so I grew up in a very tight-knit group. I think it’s much harder to find nowadays.
That’s great your parents have most of their original neighbors. I agree, it’s much harder to find now.
First, gorgeous house. Second, yes, in our neighborhood we have a few neighbors like that. We have a key to the next door neighbor’s house and she has ours, just in case.
That’s so nice to have neighbors with keys. We don’t have that trust yet in our new neighborhood, but we have a few neighbors to check on our house, packages etc. when we’re out of town. We do the same for them. Yes, it was a beautiful house. I didn’t want to leave and my husband did. I suggested pricing it way over what the realtor suggested and we got four above asking offers in four hours!
Wow! There have been a couple of times when we’ve needed to borrow the key we gave to the neighbors because we locked ourselves out of our house LOL.
There’s a perfect reason to give a neighbor a key! 😂
What have your neighbors done for you when you needed help? Do you play that role with any neighbors? Neighbors around here are what I describe as “pleasantly indifferent.” They say “Hello” [usually] and that’s it. We’ve been here over 20 years now and I doubt that it’s going to change.
Most of our neighbors are like that in our new home. But we’ve lived there for less than three years. I think with Karl we were more than neighbors because of our kids going to school, my friendship with his wife and everyone on the swim team together.
Great neighbors are a blessing. They really make a difference from a house being just a house, or a house being a home. Love stories like your Karl stories!
We sure miss Karl. We do have our next door neighbor with his new puppy Emma looking after our house while we’re on vacation. I think it takes time to build the relationship we had with Karl and his family.
We live in a neighborhood full of Karls (and Karlas too) and feel very fortunate because of it. Several of us have keys to each other’s homes, which came in handy with our recent crazy storm. One of our neighbors was out of town and asked my husband to close his windows and skylights for him. I feel sorry for those who live in neighborhoods where the neighbors don’t interact.
Your home in Palm Springs was gorgeous! It must have been hard to leave it.
Your neighborhood and neighbors sound wonderful! Ideal. Yes, I hated leaving our home. But the neighborhood has changed, the town has changed. We had a homeless guy who insisted he bought the house and was living in our yard, for example. Crime has escalated. The cost of living was nuts. So, I am happy we got out when we did, although I miss the old home’s beauty and character.
I love these stories about Karl. I worried a little bit that this was going to end with something happening to Karl – so glad it was just celebrating him. You provide such great examples of someone who we know we can call – not just because they’ll help but because they are HAPPY to help. Such an inspiration!
Everything going on in my life would lead you to that conclusion! But I just wanted to honor a good friend who we could count on.
I love Karl, what an incredible person, and you describe his heroic nature so beautifully. We have great neighbors who have been an incredible source of love and support for years. We’re very lucky. And of course, my daughter lives right across the street. Heaven. Hugs, C
You are so fortunate to have great neighbors for years, too. We’re starting over in Arizona, but have found some wonderful people close to us — including one of my golf buddies from when the kids were in school. I’d love for my kids to live close by, but they’re sold on the Bay Area.
Hello, I live with in the Bay Area, I totally get it! They can always call on me! 💕
😊 I left out one of the best things about Karl. His British wit. When our daughters were ten on the pooldeck they were arguing whose dad was taller. Karl approached my husband and they stood back to back! When they swam masters they were competitive down to swim paddles. Karl bought yellow ones, so my husband bought red, which were the biggest. One morning Karl came with black ones that were huge. He made them from cardboard, painted black complete with holes and bands. He put them on in the morning darkness and showed them off to my husband. My husband was like “What are those?!”
What a lovely tribute to good neighbors and Karl in particular. We do have a neighbor we can count on and vice versa. There’s been a good bit of turnover and generally not that close of a neighborhood, unfortunately.
It’s so reassuring to have a friend you can count on.
What a blessing!
He was!
Friends like these are priceless!
They are! I should have written more about his sense of humor too, which makes his friendship that much more valuable.