The Next House

A man researching his family history was looking for a distant uncle. He stopped by a house where a man was resting on a front porch swing. He approached the man and said, “I’m looking for Mister Daniels and I hear he lives somewhere here on this road; do you happen to know where he lives?”

The man looked him in the eye and answered, “Mister Daniels has passed on.” Then pointing to the next house, which was perhaps a quarter of a mile up the road, said, “He used to live right up there… His son lives there now.”

This little story reminds me that my father also set standards, I couldn’t meet, for human kindness and respect for the beliefs treasured by others.