Feeling Special at Jack's

For any of you that know our family well, you know who Jack is.  For those of you who haven't heard us talk about him let me fill you in.  Jack is our neighbor to the west.  Our backyard is adjacent to his front porch. Jack has lived there for about 4 years, but has become particularly special to us in the last 2.5 years.

Jack has lived a hard life.  He served several years in prison for felony DUI's but has been sober almost 10 years.  He lost his son when his son was in his early 20's and I don't think we have ever talked about how he died as it is clearly an emotional subject for him.

He has a daughter that lives in Mulvane and a couple of grandkids that he doesn't see on a regular basis.  But he has adopted our kids as his surrogate grandkids and they look forward to his daily visits.

It all started one night when we had some leftovers. With the exception of myself, my family hates leftovers and I was sick of dumping them out in the trash.  So one night, I decided to carry a plate of leftovers over to Jack.  Then it became a couple of times a week, now Jack comes and picks up supper almost every single night.

My kids see him more than they see their own grandparents.  They run to him when he comes in the door and they tell him that they love him.  He showers them with attention and buys them treats whenever I give him the chance.

In return for the meals that I cook, Jack gives me a night off by buying supper once or twice a week.  It is a pretty sweet little arrangement.  Jack refuses to be in any pictures but did allow me to snap this picture of the boys playing on his front porch earlier.

There are not many things I am going to miss about this house when we move.  But, Jack will be one of them...and Steve jokes, he thinks that Jack will most likely starve to death!  Truly Jack, thanks for being a part of our lives.  Good neighbors are hard to come by these days.