Life's too short

I knew my neighbor was ill, but I didn't realize until tonight when I read the paper that he had been taken to hospise and had died.
Wow, I'm not going to get the good neighbor award.
I feel really bad because he was a really nice man and his passing saddens me because he really had a lot of passion for many aspects of his life.
His yard was pristine. He cared for it and the house next door for many years as the owner, I believe, his aunt, was in a nursing home.
He held us all to a higher level in yard critique, although all of us in the neighborhood paled in comparison.
He was a nice and friendly man when he was out in the yard and we were, but we weren't what you would call friendly neighbors. There were no backyard barbeques, which, I never saw them have a grill, but we grill, and we never invited them over.
How do you live two doors down from someone and yet not realize until a day later that they have died?
I want to contribute it to a changing society where we are all involved with our own lives and the hell with everyone else.
I still can't believe my next door neighbor's husband died more than a year ago and I didn't know it until after the funeral.
Apparently, I live in a neighborhood of nonneighboring. If that term even exists. Which, I'm sure doesn't but it should. I feel bad about my lack of knowledge, but if I were more neighborly, I would have known.
How can we really claim that small-town life is the way to go when these things happen right under our noses and we have to read it in the paper???
I'm just venting a little. I feel guilty for not doing more or at least offering more.
When we moved here fifteen years ago, we had different neighbors.
They didn't want to "be neighborly" and we accepted that and went on with our lives. When new neighbors moved in, we just continued in our usual pattern.
Do get me wrong, we do talk to our neighbors, but we don't do the whole backyard barbeque thing like I've heard so many people talk about.
We have lots of celebritory occasions in our backyard. We do invite the neighbors, but none have every actually come over during one of our celebrations.
I don't mean just a family barbeque, I'm talking weddings, birthdays, and class reunions.
I hear about people wanting to live in smaller communities because of the values and support you gain in living in such communities.
Hello, I seem to be living in one, and don't feel too warm and fuzzy about the situation.
I might as well live in some big suburb in a metropolitan area for as much as I actually know about what's going on with my neighbors.
I grew up living in big cities. Yes, we might have known our neighbors somewhat, but my parents too friend who came to the birthday parties and backyar barbeques were friends of my parents who worked with my Father.
That was a long time ago and in a different time.
I don't know that if the situation were the same, they would invite those people over without a background check.
All I know is that my Father was friends with a lot of people and they came to our house on occasion.
I am not following in my Father's footsteps because, I can guarantee, my Father would have known how bad the health of his neighbor was.
I'm not leading a very good example for my kids or grandkids.
I want to pass on to them values that will help them succeed in life.
You can be just as honest as you want to be, but if you're not human and show emotion. It means nothing.