Last Thursday was a doozy…

It all started with my next door neighbor dying in my driveway. Yes, Mr. Toolson died in my driveway. I woke up around 6 AM to the sound of (what I thought) was Chase doing pushups outside my bedroom window. All I heard was loud counting and someone shouting. Then, I saw the lights from the fire engine and ambulance, and realized what the commotion really meant: Chase was performing CPR.

The ambulance backed into my driveway, and loaded Mr. Toolson inside. At first, I didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation. I just kept waiting for the ambulance to speed off to the hospital. Instead, though, the EMTs lingered around and questioned Chase about what had happened. At one point I heard Chase say the following:

“I don’t know. I checked on him at 3:30 and he was fine. But when I came back in at 5:30 he wasn’t on the couch where I left him. That’s when I noticed the back door was cracked open, and I found him lying there in the driveway. He wasn’t breathing.”

That is when it dawned on me: Mr. Toolson was already gone. Probably died before Chase discovered his body.

Quite frankly, I had no idea that Mr. Toolson was even back home, yet. Less than four days before, he had been rushed to the ER after collapsing from an apparent stroke in his living room. He spent Sunday night through Wednesday evening in the ICU at Baylor. Why Mr. Toolson would be back so soon was completely beyond me at the time. Later, though, I learned that he was released mainly due to insurance woes. Namely: the Toolson’s didn’t have any, and it wasn’t financially realistic for his family to pay the ever-mounting medical bills involved in an extended stay in the ICU. Sadly, such a decision proved fatal. A mere twelve hours later, Mr. Toolson was gone.

Later on that morning, I found myself crying in my office. Yes, I’ve made fun of my next door neighbors here on my blog, but never out of spite. They’ve always been…well, a little interesting, but primarily in an “I’m utterly fascinated by them” kind of way. Plus, most of my “Toolson Incident Reports” have been about Mr. Toolson’s son, Chase, Chase’s girlfriend, “Jane Doe”, and their two babies, Jet and Savannah. After all, it isn’t every day that a baby comes crawling out from underneath your car.

Mr. Toolson, though, was always looking out for me and my wellbeing. When work was being done on my house, he’d inspect the progress and keep an eye on the workers. If I went out of town, he’d park his car in my driveway and leave his flood lights on all night to deter criminals. He’d even clean out my gutters if he noticed that they had become full of debris during a recent heavy rain. Mr. Toolson was a really good neighbor – the kind of neighbor you read about in books set in the 1950s: watchful, helpful and kind. Yes, he was a little odd, but I always felt safe knowing that he around and keeping tabs on everything.

Then there is his family. Mr. Toolson had recently come out of retirement and taken two jobs (one at CVS and another at SAM’S) to help support his flock. His son Chase, released from prison late last year, was having a hard time holding down a job and providing for Jane, Jet and Savannah. Consequently, when Chase and Jane could no longer afford the apartment they were renting, Mr. Toolson let them move back in with him and his wife this past spring. As the grandparents, Mr. Toolson and his wife would take turns watching Jet and Savannah while Chase and Jane tried to save up enough money to get back on their feet. Yes, the Toolson’s might be a little dysfunctional, but they take care of one another. Something I’ve always respected.

I don’t know what the family will do now that they have lost their patriarch. It is so sad. The family relied on Mr. Toolson so much, and now he is gone.

Even more tragic: When Chase called 911 after he discovered his father in the driveway, he was put ON HOLD for 10 minutes. Is that even legal? Granted, it sounds like Mr. Toolson was most likely DOA, but no one could have known that for sure at the time. In a situation where seconds count, being put on hold could have been the difference between life and death.

I know it is silly, but I just keep wishing I’d shown Mr. Toolson my pictures from Africa. He asked on several occasions to see them, but I hadn’t finished compiling them into an album, yet. It is just one of those projects I started, but never got around to finishing. Now, of course, I wish I had gotten my act together and completed the silly scrapbook in time to show him before he passed away. I bet it would have made Mr. Toolson happy to see them. He told me once that he had always dreamt of traveling to Africa and going on a safari. He was like a little kid when I told him about all the animals I had seen – his eyes literately lit up with excitement.

Sigh. If only…