Dear Neighbor,
If you’re reading this, it means I have finally been reunited with Elena.
I want to ask you one last favor.
Don’t let the bougainvilleas disappear.
Not because they are flowers.
But because they represent something far more important.
They represent the fact that even after losing the people we love, we still have the ability to share beauty with others.
For a long time, I thought I was completely alone.
But I was wrong.
Every morning I heard your broom.
I heard your footsteps.
And I knew someone was nearby.
Then you walked into my house.
And you gave me back something I thought I’d lost forever:
Friendship.
Thank you for reminding me that I still belonged in this world.
With affection,
Samuel
I finished reading the letter in tears.
Three years have passed since then.
The bougainvilleas still grow along the fence we shared.
Every Wednesday I still sit on that porch with a cup of coffee.
Sometimes alone.
Sometimes with neighbors.
And every time a few petals fall onto my porch, I smile.
Because I no longer see dry leaves to sweep away.
I see the memory of a good man who taught me a lesson I will never forget:
The greatest tragedies in life are not always illness or death.
Sometimes, they are loneliness.
“And the most powerful thing one person can do for another is not to give them money or gifts.
It is simply to make them feel that they have not been forgotten.”
