Former Neighbors
by Rob

Yesterday was one of those days with two events that seemed especially poignant together.

In the morning, I was shopping when I ran into the son of our former neighbor, Angie. She lived downstairs from us when we lived on Shannon Street. We first moved there in 1992. At that time, Angie was 86 years old. When I spotted Joe yesterday, and we first started talking, I had difficulty figuring out the best way to ask about Angie, since I hadn't heard anything about her is several years. Well, she's 101, and doing well, although she's moved into a nursing facility. Joe says that she's happy there and enjoys being around other people. He said that he would be seeing her later this week and that he would tell her that we had asked about her. He expects that she will remember us.

In the afternoon, Nate and I went to Albany Med. to visit one of his friends, Kevin. Nate and Kevin became friends in elementary school. For about a year, Kevin, his sister Amy, and his mother Holly, lived here on Schermerhorn Road in a house that they rented from one of our neighbors. Kevin was hit by a car while he was riding his bicycle about 10 days ago. Although we knew that he was at Albany Med in ICU, we didn't know much more about his condition. Holly was there when we arrived. She met with us and talked to us, telling us about Kevin's condition. He's still unconscious. They have him heavily sedated, and although they had wakened him about 48 hours ago, he was in too much pain, and so they resumed the medicine and put him back to sleep. His right leg was severely damaged in the accident. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and he also suffered head injuries. They are not sure about the extent of his brain injuries at this point, since he hasn't been awake for any length of time since the accident. When he wakes up, they don't expect him to remember anything about what has happened. They don't know what else he'll have trouble remembering.