Someone I casually know passed away and it sucks.
I didn’t know him well, in fact I didn’t even know his name (though I do now). I mostly knew him as the guy who walked his really big dogs in our neighborhood (a German shepherd and a rottweiler) and was really friendly.
One night though, I was sitting on the couch, this was REALLY late at night, like after 11. Just chilling and watching TV and I got a knock on my door. It was him, and he said he was sorry to bother me but he noticed that my next-door neighbor had left his garage door wide open, there was stuff in the garage, and he was worried someone might steal it. He wanted to know if I could help him close it. That neighbor was in the process of moving and at the time there was nobody in the house.
So I slapped on a pair of shoes and a jacket (I still had PJ pants on though, it was late), we went to the neighbor’s house. I noticed he had an automatic garage door exactly like mine. So I asked the guy to wait outside as I went into the garage. I prepared myself, slapped the button for the door, and ran out. I knew that he had an eyebeam thing at ground level, because I had one too, and I had to hop over that because if I tripped it, it would stop closing the door to prevent harming a person or vehicle. But at the same time the door was closing, so I had to get over the beam and under the door. I did it quickly and successfully on the first try.
He said that was amazing, and I said I felt like Indiana Jones avoiding a trap. We waved goodbye, he went home and so did I, both knowing that we might have helped a neighbor (that neither of us knew well) and maybe kept him from losing some items. (Years ago, I had left my garage door open in a NyQuil-induced haze after taking out the garbage and someone stole my backpack with a laptop and other valuables in it, so it wasn’t a completely meritless concern.)
Anyway, just days ago that guy (who I now know was named Shane) was killed in a motorcycle accident. He seemed pretty young too, he seemed like he was in his 30s. What kind of guy asks a stranger for help in the middle of the night to help him with another stranger? He must have been a special guy.
RIP neighbor guy who I now know is Shane. He has a little memorial set up in our neighborhood too, I think other people were acquainted with him since he was a pretty friendly guy.