Love Thy Neighbor

I spent another weekend cleaning out my parent's house and we are just about done. They live in the same home that I grew up in. For the first 40 or so years they had wonderful next door neighbors. When those neighbors sold their home, my parents were blessed to get new neighbors that are indescribable. They are from Russia and barely speak English, but the love they have for my parents is overwhelming. They watch over them like they are their own parents. They will climb over the back fence and clean my parents yard. They will sweep in front of my parents house every morning to make sure that it looks immaculate. If there are garbage bags that need to be pulled to the curb, they will do it before my parents have a chance. When we visit my parents, we always go next door to say hello. We hug and kiss and smile. We try to communicate in broken English. We don't really need words to say how we feel. As we left my parent's house yesterday, the neighbors rushed out to see us. They looked at my parents and kept repeating, "Family, family". They did not need to say another word.