Sometimes the most random things end up meaning the most to you down the line as times winds it’s way through the months and years. I remember several years ago our neighbors the Adays got gutters placed on their house for the first time. Mr. Aday was a great guy and he’d almost have to be considering the number of times each week the boys would kick a ball or throw a frisbee over his fence. Like Mr. Wilson from the old Dennis The Menace comic strips, the call would go up “Heeeeeyyyyyy Mr. Aaaaadaaaayyyy! Our ball went over your fence again.” I can only imagine the shear number of dinners they interrupted hoping he would take mercy on their poor souls and walk into the backyard, wrestle the ball away from his collie Zeva, and heave it over the fence only to repeat the same steps the very next day.
It was in the process of installing those gutters on the Aday house that the contractors left behind a pair of green cutting sheers. Nothing fancy. Not really worth anything. The sheers were simply a tool of the trade left behind by some oblivious worker. After days of telling Mandy the mere sight of them sitting on the corner of the roof was eating at my soul (as I’ve mentioned there is no rhyme or reason to my anxieties), I finally caught Mr. Aday coming out of his backyard one night and immediately offered to help him with “his” problem. The answer I received back did nothing to easy my troubles, “Naaa I figure sooner or later they will realize they left them behind and come back for them.” And so they sat there perched on the corner of the roof line mocking me every time I stepped outside. Winters came, Summers passed, Mr. Aday himself even moved on after awhile. Spencer Tommy Aday passed away on November 27th, 2019. He was a proud father, grandfather, husband, a good friend to two boys who never learned to control a basketball, and their dad who always looked forward to seeing his smiling face as he made his way to his wood shop.
Today just happens to be Memorial Day 2021 and it also happens that Mr. Aday was a U.S. Marine himself. I’m sure his family is remembering him in their own special way. As for me; I couldn’t help and smile as I walked out to play basketball with Alex this morning and looked up at those old green cutting sheers still sitting there all these years later on the corner of the roof line where some oblivious worker left them behind. As I said before, it’s often the most random things that end up meaning the most to us down the line.
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