We forged bonds with neighbors, too. I am partnered now, but was between marriages as a single mother for 20 years. Back then, when I was divorced and abandoned, my help was mostly from church for the little stuff and relatives for the big emergengies. I had an heiress aunt, a sucessful brother and a successful sister who all helped with things like buying us a used car or just major car repairs, or a month when we could not quite make the rent. And my parents, though distant, did things like take a son with bad chicken pox to stay with them for intensive nursing so I would not have to take a week off my job and maybe be thown out of work.
Church was helpful with emergency sitters, an inexpensive place to go for social activities, and a food pantry. An oil burner technician from church fixed our heat when we could not afford to get it fixed one winter, too. They gave us beautiful hand-me-down clothes or the kids, and bought them new shoes.
But, as I said, nowadays it's neighbors and often as not we help them as much as they help us. We help with their computers and share cuttings back and forth for our gardens. When their water goes out they come to us for buckets from our well. When the power goes out in the winter they know they can come here to get warm. Jack and Betty provide us with rabbit dropings for our garden and take our mail when we are away. Mary nextdoor, who is raising her grandson, takes packages for us as needed. But we especially rely on Yusuf and Mira. Yusuf helped us when we put up our fance and our grape arbor. When we build our chicken coop Yusuf is coning over to help. For true emergencies, I have can have my son or his fiance come over (soon to be his new wife - Jan 5). But they will be 7 miles away. A wise man once said, "Better is a neighbor that is near than a brother who is far off."
Join the discussion