We had a childless elderly couple who lived next door as we were growing up. Their door was always open to us, they showered us with so much love and affection, as if we were their own :D:D:D
If we weren't crazy about what mom was fixing for dinner? We could eat there LOL Power out on a school day? One of them would come over to invite us for pancakes cooked on their old cast iron cookstove.
On the rare occasion Mom couldn't be home when we got off of the school bus? She was at the end of her driveway, no matter what the weather was like, waiting to bring us to her home.
As older kids, if anything happened and parents were gone? Their's was the go to home...
There wasn't anything they wouldn't have done for us... including discipline, when not if, we needed it LOL
He ate sooo many boxes of a cold cereal one year that he wasn't really that fond of, just because he knew my brother's and I were saving the box tops for prizes LOL
They taught us so many things, I could sit for hours as a child and an adult, at the kitchen table with them... They were both so full of love, wisdom and kindness.
He would let us go into his green house full of orchids. Patiently answering all of our questions, over and over and over again, about everything under the sun :D:D:D
When my Dad passed, I was 19 and I had all of the responsiblility on my shoulders. It was the two of them who helped me through it, as my Mom was a wreck after Dad's 3 year battle. I will never forget that. Without them? I wouldn't have had the strength to be there for my younger brothers and Mom.
As hard as we all tried, I don't think any of us could ever express to them just how much they were loved and appreciated. How much their kindness impacted all of our lives. How much our parents all appreciated all they did for us. How I couldn't imagine my childhood without them in my life :D:D:D