Saturday, May 30, 2026
About 53 years ago, my husband, Charlie, and our family moved into a neighborhood where we met a couple with whom we became close friends and with whom we shared much of our lives for decades.
Roy and Charlie had a not so dissimilar approach when it came to car maintenance in home repairs. I remember Roy calling to tell Charlie he had just bought a new car and asking Charlie to help him push it home. Roy boasted that he never paid more for a car than $100, which in today’s money is probably $100.
Then there was the time the two of them decided to insulate both houses by making holes in the walls every 9” or so and blowing in what looked like the lint you see in the bottom of a cardboard box—-much of it did not get in the walls.
And just about every year, Charlie seemed surprised by the fact that winter entailed cold weather; so after gently promoting him to “turn the heat on “, he would disappear into the basement, sound something like a scene from A Christmas Story “, and then call Roy.
About a year after Charlie died? I found myself following in the family tradition and it was Roy to the rescue,
It occurs to me that for most of us our legacy will be determined by the people we meet and the memories they hold of us. There are the memories that make up a lifetime and I’m grateful for them all.
Thanks for the memories, Roy.
