Our street is just off of State Route 16, the \u201cmain drag\u201d through our small town of Pataskala, Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0If you\u2019re east bound, turn right on Linden Avenue, then left at the stop sign, and you\u2019re there.\u00a0\u00a0If you look down the street, you see several US Flags, some on poles, and some displayed from houses.\u00a0\u00a0But that\u2019s not all.\u00a0\u00a0As you turn the corner, you\u2019ll see a \u201cTrump 2020\u201d sign, and the blue Trump flag waving in front of a well manicured home.\u00a0\u00a0Farther down the block, you\u2019ll see a similar blue flag, this one displaying the words \u201cLiterally Anyone Else.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Welcome to Linda Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t a story about Blue versus Red, or Trump supporters versus \u201cResistors.\u201d This is a story of how a neighborhood in suburban Ohio manages to get along and work together, even if we don\u2019t agree on the national political picture. We know: we all know who supports Trump (most) and who does not (us, and maybe???) But as far as Linda Avenue is concerned, that really doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our little street came together a year ago to support one of our own.\u00a0\u00a0Pat was an eighty-seven year old widow who lived in her house on Linda Avenue for almost sixty years.\u00a0\u00a0She lost her husband and only child in a horrific freeway accident in the 1970\u2019s. Her house remained frozen in that time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pat was often the \u201cmean old lady,\u201d roughly turning down offers for help with shoveling snow or raking leaves.\u00a0\u00a0She took care of her own property with pride, and I had conversations with her as she spryly trimmed branches up in the tree.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPat, let me do that,\u201d I\u2019d say.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMr. Dahlman, I can still climb trees and take care of myself, go along now,\u201d she\u2019d respond.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She lived alone, ultimately finding friendship with the widower across the street. They teamed up together, getting the grass cut, the leaves raked, the bills paid, and sharing the his \u201cMeals on Wheels.\u201d Pat would never allow them to deliver to her, but she wouldn\u2019t let his food go to waste. They were \u201cjust friends\u201d she\u2019d say, for decades. But then, he died as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pat didn\u2019t want help, and if you offered, you might get yelled at. \u201cStop being nosy\u201d she would say. But when her friend died, she didn\u2019t come out at all. After a month or more, the neighbors started checking on her, knocking on the door, and dropping groceries off. They made sure the grass was cut, and the leaves cleaned up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes Pat would just yell \u201cgo away.\u201d Sometimes she\u2019d open the door and talk. And, very occasionally, she let them in. But even if she wouldn\u2019t come to the door, if you left food on the doorstep, it would disappear into the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then there was the mail. Pat didn\u2019t have a mailbox in front of her house, she was afraid someone would steal out of it. So she had a box at the post office. But, if she didn’t ever leave her house, she couldn\u2019t get the mail. And no one else could have the key, even to run in and get it for her. And finally, the rent came due, and the office closed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pat lost track of time. It wasn\u2019t hard to do: she didn’t leave her house or yard from October to July. The TV stopped working, and so did the clocks. No one was allowed to do repairs, not even to fix the broken toilet. She had to take to top off to flush it. She knew her bills were up to date, because she didn\u2019t get any more. January and February passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jenn and I got more involved when the neighbor down the street mentioned that she was paying Pat\u2019s water bills. There hadn\u2019t been a cutoff notice; it couldn\u2019t arrive. But when it was \u201ctime\u201d to cut off the water, the folks in Pataskala City Hall didn\u2019t want to do it. They let the neighbor cover the bills, three months worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the neighborhood was buying a little bit of groceries, and pitching in to get the water paid. We knocked on the door with a Kentucky Fried Chicken \u201cthree piece\u201d meal and iced tea; even if Pat called out \u201cwhat do you want, I\u2019m in bed,\u201d it would go inside if you just left it on the stoop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We called members of her family over and over, but they showed little interest in Pat.\u00a0\u00a0We tried the County Aging Services:\u00a0\u00a0they stopped by, but said there was nothing they would do.\u00a0\u00a0It was frustrating frustrated. It felt like the whole world turned it\u2019s back on this little old lady in Pataskala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019d rotate calling, usually one of us every day. Pretty much no matter what time you called, Pat said she was in bed and didn’t want to talk. Then the phone was shut off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here in Ohio the utility cutoff date is April 15th<\/sup>, just like taxes. That\u2019s the day the gas and electric gets cut off if you haven\u2019t paid the bills. But phone companies don’t wait so long. No one freezes to death from not having a phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Utility companies are kind of funny. They won\u2019t give you information about the \u201caccount\u201d without the having all the identifying numbers, but they\u2019ll let you pay the bill. The phone company was the first: after explaining everything that was going on, that the phone was the only lifeline, they sadly said there was nothing they could do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fifteen minutes later, the agent called back, in tears, and said he couldn\u2019t let it go. He blessed us, took our information for payment, and turned the line back on. Jenn and I were overwhelmed by his response. I don\u2019t think Pat ever realized it was off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenn went over to Pat\u2019s house, and explained that she was going to lose all of her utilities. \u201cJust snoopin\u201d said Pat, but Jenn managed to persuade her. She got the old utility bills so she could copy the identification numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gas, electric, water and sewer, phone: it all had to be paid. And we had to get her mail going again. The Pataskala Post Office knew Pat well, and they were worried about her. When we explained what was going on, they were anxious to work with us. We got the PO Box back open, and delivered Pat\u2019s mail to her again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, for a couple of months, we\u2019d go over to Pat\u2019s house, knock on the door, and try to get her to pay bills.\u00a0\u00a0The hardest part, once we got in the door, was the argument:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhat month is it?\u00a0\u00a0What year?\u00a0\u00a0When did I last pay the bills?\u00a0\u00a0You paid what?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It was every time and overwhelming; she\u2019d shake from shock and fear.\u00a0\u00a0It was the realization that she had lost a year; her checkbook said it was 2018. It would take fifteen minutes to write three checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And she had skin cancers: on her face and on her back. They were growing, but she wouldn\u2019t let anyone take her to a doctor. She was embarrassed about how they looked. And she was eating less and less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We had a lot of discussions, about whether we should leave Pat to die in her house alone.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s seemed like that\u2019s what she wanted.\u00a0\u00a0But it would have been a horrible, helpless death:\u00a0\u00a0cancer, and starvation, and cold.\u00a0\u00a0Right or wrong, we couldn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By mid-July Pat wouldn\u2019t pay bills. She wouldn\u2019t let anyone in the house, peeking out the front window to tell us to go away. She even stopped taking the groceries from the stoop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had a neighborhood meeting, trying to figure out what to do next. Jenn did a \u201cdeep dive\u201d into the Internet, trying to find someone in Pat\u2019s family who would help. She reached a niece we hadn\u2019t known before, and arranged a meeting on the last day of July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We all met in the kitchen of our neighbor down the street. The conversation started out cold: the niece seemed like she was thinking, why was it our block\u2019s business what happens to Pat. But after some discussion, and Jenn\u2019s incredible documentation of texts and payments going back to before Christmas, the niece melted, and took charge. She called Licking County, and heard, \u201c\u2026well, if she wants to starve to death in the house, there\u2019s nothing we can do.\u201d Then she stood up, marched down to Pat\u2019s house, and called the ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The memory I want to have is of Pat proudly walking out of the house, flannel shirt covering her wounds, and marching to the ambulance, on her own. To the end she did things her way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She never came back home. We visited her in the hospital and nursing home, but the cancers spread and she was too weak for treatments. She passed away two weeks ago, her niece at her side. As lonely as her life must have been, in the end she had relatives and friends who cared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The house is for sale now. But Pat left a legacy, beyond her determination to live her life her own way. She got our \u201cblock\u201d to work together. We don\u2019t talk much about politics; the conversation is more about kids, grass, leaves and new fences. But we know we can work together, regardless of what the banners say. It\u2019s our block.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pay the Bills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No Good Ending<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Her Legacy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n