Sunday, April 7, 2024
Marilyn, Murray, Kenneth and family, I am saddened to hear of Doug's passing. He was always a friendly, kind, polite gentleman. No matter where you saw him, the highschool,, at a town event, a church event or just passing in the street he was always friendly, helpful, took pride in his work, was a great neighbor to everyone around the neighborhood. I remember when I was about four years old and my mom and I were going down town in the winter, she was pulling me in my sled and a few blocks from home, Doug stopped at the corner and asked if we would like a ride. My mom, thought that was a nice gesture and started to get me out of the sled, however what she didn't count on was that since I had just learned about not to get into a car with a strangers, that even though she knew who he was and I didn't, and I simply wasn't having it. She tried to explain to me who he was and that he was our neighbor and and his name was Doug. I stepped back put my little mitted hands on my hips and said, "Well I don't know Doug!" He took it in stride while my mother was really embarrassed and finally after a few minutes they explained to me that it was ok, and since my mom, knew him he wasn't a stranger. I finally got in the car, we got down town and went on our way, as he reassured her that it was all good I was learning things to keep me safe and that I probably wasn't going to be getting in any strangers cars, from there on out. lol! I think he was impressed how adamant I was about it as well at that age. Years later when I got to highschool, my locker door had gotten kicked in and funnily enough they called Doug to help me fix it. He got there and I was thinking he looks really familiar and after chatting for a few minutes I realized that he was my neighbor. Then after it getting kicked in several more times over a few months and chatting with him, I suddenly remembered him from when I was four years old. I told my mom about it and she couldn't believe I still remembered it. Next time I saw him in the hallway after school I told him that I needed to apologize to him, and he had this quizzical look on his face and so I recounted the story to him, and he was the same as he had been years prior, polite, friendly, and kind and said Oh yeah. He never told me whether or not he actually remembered it, yet we laughed about it, and from there on out I always greeted him with howdy neighbor, whenever I saw him around the school. I always thought that it was funny that I had to go an extra 5 blocks from my house to realize what my neighbor did for a living and to realize that I had actually met him years before when I was a child, after a random incident of having my locker door kicked in. Over the years I realized that I miss the old neighborhood and all of the people that were there when I grew up, I learned so much from all of them, and it's nice to hear that some of them never changed even as the time has passed. Doug my have passed on, he will be missed, yet never forgotten. My condolences to his family, friends and neighbors.
