A nice neighbor

A couple weeks ago I had a nice surprise presented to me from my next-door neighbor. I was out mowing the front yard in the late afternoon after I returned home from my internship. A task, I might mention, that I do not enjoy as of late because the self-propelled function on the mower doesn't have much "propel," in turn requiring a lot more work for my"self."

I was a couple of rows into the bulk of the yard, when I saw a woman walking across the driveway toward me. At first I thought she was heading for the front door, which was logical. But at second glance I saw her coming across the grass and holding a street sign, of all things. Realizing she wanted to talk to me, I pulled up on the mower in mid-row and turned to see why the woman was approaching me.

It turned out that she was Ann, my neighbor to the north. I had actually never met the woman in person, or even talked to her at all for that matter. In fact, I even had to guess a little that she was who I thought she was.

She had a big smile on her face and greeted me with a cheerful, "You're just the person I was looking for." As I glanced down at the sign she was holding, I realized it was the sign for our street. Heather Street.

"I thought you might like to have this," she said, as she held up the sign for me to see.

Apparently, the city had replaced all our neighborhood street signs that day, and she happened to see them taking down the one for our street. She went over and asked the worker if she could have the sign, and he said he would leave it on her doorstep when he was finished removing it.

As Ann went through her story, I'll admit I was only half listening. I was so surprised at the whole situation. Not really so much at having my namesake sign, but more at my neighbor. This woman, probably in her 60s, had never met me before. She probably only knows of me from my family's Christmas letter. But yet, she had the wonderful kindness to go through the trouble of snagging the sign so I could have it.

Still very surprised and flabbergasted, I sincerely thanked her as she turned the generous gift over to me.

"Thank you so much," I said. "That was so sweet of you to think of me."

I was still in awe when she turned to walk back to her home. I stood there for a couple of more seconds before I realized I was holding this big sign with one hand, and I had an idling lawn mower in the other. I gingerly tossed the sign into the already-mowed grass and then proceeded to finish my chore.

After a couple of more rows, still thinking about the kind generosity bestowed upon me, my dad came over into the yard and picked up the sign. He came over to me with a puzzled look on his face.

"What's this?"

I told him the whole story with a big grin. I could tell he was surprised by the nice gesture.

"Did you thank her?" (Always the good parent.)

I told him I had and that it was very nice of her to think of me. He left to go show the sign to my mom, as I returned to mowing.

Now I know we have this cliché in our land of 10,000 lakes about "Minnesota Nice." I don't really buy this theory. If someone is nice, I don't see what that has to do with the state. I do think though, that in today's world, finding surprises and nice gestures such as this one are tough to come by. Sure, there are nice people that do nice things. But certain things are really outta the park.