Neighbors can sometimes be silent, loud, abrasive, obnoxious, rude, nice, courteous, and sometimes they can be heroic.

Let me tell you about what happened to me.

As I was pruning my neighbor’s orange tree that falls over our property, which I’ve done many times before, I clipped a bit too far, lost my balance and fell off the ladder into my neighbor’s yard. And the loppers I’d been using impaled my thigh 3 inches deep, 5 inches wide.

I pulled out the loppers, thinking it was a stick, and panic set in because I was bleeding heavily.

I yelled to my 10-year-old daughter to call 911. I was worried the paramedics wouldn’t find me because I was in a corner which was heavily wooded, so I yelled to my neighbor behind my home. He and his wife called 911. I just couldn’t get out from the corner, not realizing that I had a gaping hole in my thigh, which prevented me from walking.

Just as I was succumbing to the realization that I’d have to wait to be rescued, I turned around and Tyler, my neighbor, (who I thought wasn’t at home) was right behind me with a towel to stop the bleeding.

He picked me up and carried me to the driveway. He went into my home and grabbed both my children and sent them to another neighbor across the street. My neighbor Joe, who’d also called 911, and his wife, Carol, drove around the corner and stayed with me until paramedics arrived and called my husband, who was at work in Hollywood.

Another neighbor, Krista, took care of my children from 2 to 9 p.m. until my husband returned from the hospital.

The outcome is that I’m okay.

I thank all my neighbors who’ve expressed their concerns and kind wishes. So to my neighbors I say, “Thank you.”

The point is, if you have neighbors such as mine, chances are they will be there for you when you need them.

Thank you to all my neighbors, especially Tyler, Carol and Joe, and Krista and P.O.
Danielle Waters and family
Thousand Oaks