My Neighbour Joe

My neighbour Joe was an uncommon common man. He was raised a farm boy on the outskirts of Oshawa, became a mechanic at The Motors. A big man in all ways, barrel chested, tough, but also extremely kind and gentle.

Joe was a great neighbour, best I'll ever have. He lived next door for a quarter century. What we learned about each other came through long rambling chats over the patchy back fence Joe maintained with  twine and cheap lattice boards.

Like all my Marmora male friends, Joe had a difficult upbringing. He had a tough father, these days one who'd be labelled abusive. His dad was a military policeman who'd become hardened during World War Two. His father had watched a captured German officer, who his fellow MP was processing , suddenly slit the MP's throat with a stiletto hidden in the officer's boot. 

Joe loved his wives, and I saw the love he shared with Joanna and Bonnie while he lived next door. Joe loved his backyard gardens and their colourful flowers, so he hated the squirrels who trampled and ate them, and might have taken a bb gun potshot at one or two when I wasn't looking.

Joe couldn't tolerate nonsense, and within the past year he challenged a twenty-something motorcyclist who raced up and down our busy street where children play. Joe stood in the street, barrel-chested and shirtless, and the chastened biker only dared pop wheelies in frustration at the challenge from a man at least half a century younger.

Joe wasn't a braggart and didn't like a fuss, as proven by the modest plans for his burial. One summer day as Joe walked home from my yard, I noticed a nasty scar on his back. Joe, I said, you've been stabbed. Yes, Joe answered, years ago in Oshawa, I won a fight and then turned my back on the guy.



Joe shirtless
knife wound
above his heart


postscript: Joe had a deeply spiritual nature and insight into other realms. He often experienced visits after Joanna died. The day Joe died, Bonnie's cell phone mysteriously rang and the call was from the house landline. A not-so-final farewell from a pranking Joe.
 

Joe Died of a heart attack May 13. His burial is this Tuesday, May 23 in the Zion United Church cemetery. His plot will be on the edge of thousands of acres of bush. Joe will have company - two black bears have been seen recently wandering by the graveyard.    

 

Zion United Church

Centreline Road, Marmora