[Summit] An apology

Emlyn Addison noisyblocks at gmail.com
Sun Oct 6 15:50:49 UTC 2019


Hi neighbors,

This apology is long overdue.

Please allow me to provide some context because I think it matters here.

A couple of years ago our young cat had gone missing. It hit us hard
because, just a few months earlier, we had lost our family pet of 16
years—my longtime companion—who died suddenly. So our 8-year-old daughter
had become very close with our new kitten and she was deeply affected by
his disappearance. I posted an email to the list in the hope that someone
might have seen him and we scoured the neighborhood several times
throughout the following day.

Eventually we made flyers and I walked with my daughter to post them around
the neighborhood. This was a dreadful experience—something that as a parent
I found more difficult than I expected; she was very sad and very quiet. I
assumed the worst but didn't want to say anything. The flyers kept hope
alive for her but I knew it was just postponing the inevitable conversation
I'd have to have with her. We returned home feeling despondent.

That evening I happened to be behind our shed when I heard very faint
meowing. I recognized it immediately and leapt through the undergrowth to
find the source. It was coming from inside our neighbor's garage. To say
that I was overjoyed would be an understatement. A wave of relief and
elation immediately came over me. Frantic, I jumped up and hurried down
their driveway, heart pounding, hollering and banging on their siding with
utter joy. Nothing else mattered; our cat was alive and I wouldn't have to
give my daughter more awful news. Everything was going to be OK.

But the neighbor was, to say the least, astonished at this. Looking back on
it today, I must have seemed like A CRAZY PERSON. Who is this man bounding
down our driveway, hooting loudly and rapping on our windows? Had the
situation been reversed, I'd have been just as alarmed at the intrusion. I
mean how rude was that? We had knocked on their door earlier that day while
out looking for the cat, so there was some familiarity, but I was a very
different person then (I can only claim temporary insanity—the moment took
me—but it was no excuse to invade a neighbor's privacy).

I've regretted my behavior ever since and really did intend to make a
proper apology, but I found myself reluctant following the brief exchange
we'd had after the cat's rescue. In hindsight I should have put that aside
and made the apology all the same. I also made the error, in the heat of
the moment, of posting my irritation about it on this listserve; at the
time it seemed justified but it wasn't. It was wrong of me to vent in
public and it was unfair on our neighbor who did nothing to deserve it. I
wrote some stupid things. We're not all pet people and I need to be more
mindful of that.

So please accept my sincere apology for this incident. I don't know your
names but I'm sorry for the way I behaved that day, for invading your
privacy, and I'm sorry for foolishly posting my gripes here after the fact.
It was uncalled for and not at all neighborly.

We're a working couple with a young daughter and a cat and no other family
nearby; it's just us. We know nearly everyone around us and are friends
with many; our neighbors are important to us. We're easy going, we try to
be involved, to be good neighbors and to do the right thing. So I hope you
will forgive my errors of judgment and help mend the fence.

Thanks for reading.

Emlyn Addison
8th Street
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