By Ann von Dehsen, December 10, 2020 — My apartment building contains sixteen apartments and most residents are young, male college students. We say polite hellos as we pass each other in the hall, but really know nothing of each other’s lives. We’ve deduced each other’s names by reading the names on the mailboxes in the lobby.
Four of these apartments, including mine, face Sartane St., a quiet and narrow private street. One night a few weeks ago I happened to look up to the balcony across from me and saw that Jeremy, one of those young college students, had strung white lights around his balcony railing. I thought it really looked pretty and decided to do the same. Before I could get to it the next morning, there was a knock on the door, and there stood Jeremy. I told him how much I liked the lights and was planning to do the same thing. He told me to save my own lights and handed me a box of new lights, explaining that he had bought a box for each one of the other three apartments. He refused to be repaid and I told him he had made my day, to which he replied, “Well, it’s the season of giving.” Within an hour, my other neighbors and I were out there adorning our balconies. At the first hint of darkness, we all went outside to take photos of our group creation and chatted about plans for the upcoming holidays. Since then, our masked hallway hellos have morphed into short conversations. Unclaimed packages addressed to one of us that usually would sit for days under our mailboxes are now hand-delivered to all of the owner’s doors. It’s beginning to feel like home. So thank you, Jeremy, for that small act of community kindness. I will be making Christmas cookies to be delivered to my three new friends.
