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OTHER PEOPLE'S YARDS The van was loaded with all the necessary tools and off I drove to visit my granddaughter's new place of residence. When I arrived, the rest of our family was nowhere to be seen, so I unloaded the rakes, shovels, hoe and broom, and began to work on the small piece of property that was now all hers. Her new yard was really not very big, so I knew it would not take me very long to get it in perfect condition. Within an hour, I completed the job and it looked absolutely fantastic. As I looked carefully around, I noticed that the neighbors’ small yards had not been kept up and in some cases, had not been attended to for several years. Still seeing no one around, I began raking the small property to the right of my granddaughter's. It only took me about five minutes to rake the small yard. I stepped back for a moment and looked at the entire neighborhood. All the properties had been let go and were somewhat run down, and I could not understand why. I walked over to the property to the left side of my granddaughter's lot and once again, I started to rake the small lot. When I was about half way through, I heard a small voice holler, "Granny! Papa's cleaning other people's yards." I stopped, just for a moment, leaned on my rake and smiled. Maybe a tear or two came to my eye, but just for an instant. Then I, once again, continued my raking. By the time I stopped, which was about two hours later, I had raked, weeded, cleaned and straightened up everything in the small neighborhood. I walked over to my van and picked up my camera, just as my wife, son and daughter-in-law came driving up to visit. "Looks good dad," said Judy as she patted me on the back. We visited with our granddaughter for about an hour and then took some pictures of her new place for the photo album. We also took some pictures of the revitalized neighborhood. Before leaving, I walked over and kissed the headstone that we had just placed on her new piece of property in the cemetery. Once again, I smiled as I silently heard the words, "Granny! Papas cleaning other people's yards." Papa