Our 89 year old neighbor had quite an interesting 24 hours. It began with an oil truck being unable to make a delivery because her driveway had not been plowed. Amazingly, we were able to get the plow person to remove the snow so that the oil truck could supply her with oil the same day.
Later that day another neighbor went to shovel her walkway. He smelled oil and, sure enough, the tank was leaking. During his investigation in the cellar, he noticed a water leak. Putting his finger in the oil tank ala the Dutch boy and the dike, he was able to call my handyman wife. After checking things out, my wife called the Town and, lo and behold, a short while later the Fire Chief, the Health Agent and a Policeman came to our neighbor’s house. They were able to stem the oil leak and, mirabile dictu, convince a very stubborn old lady to spend the night elsewhere, namely my house.
In the meantime our shoveling neighbor stayed at his post until the oil company people came and pumped the oil tank into barrels. First thing this morning, he called a plumber and waited while the water leak was fixed. This is all done while he should have been tending to his paying customers, as, of course, his time was a gift to the old lady. Then, he took here home. However, he will be returning every few days to move the heater line from one barrel to the next until all the barrels are used and a new oil tank can be brought in.
It was good to see a variety of people working without compensation to help someone in real need.
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