To the editor:
We moved to our home in Oakfield, seven years ago. We were “from away” with no family or friends in the area. As we settled in, we became aware of the special community we had moved into. Not only is it a beautiful place to live, but it is filled with beautiful people as well.
When my step-mother was terminally ill in Alabama, our neighbor offered his truck so that I could go see her. When we were out of town during a big snowstorm, we came home to a plowed driveway. When the car broke down on the interstate, a neighbor picked us up. When my husband had surgery, a friend scooped the drive and carried wood pellets into the house.
Any time we needed help, we only needed to ask (or maybe we didn’t, they just knew to help). When a local resident needs help, there is a fund-raising supper at the community center. And, on Tuesday nights, the locals get together at the community center to play music, dance, and visit with one another.
I was lucky enough to be hired part-time by Katahdin Cedar Log Homes where the Katahdin family embraced me as part of that family. We were very happy in our new home and the Oakfield community.
Then, last March, the doctors gave us some scary health news and we decided very quickly, to return home to Kansas where our family was – and that is when we really found out about the “good hearts” of the folks in Oakfield. My wonderful Katahdin family passed the hat and collected a greatly appreciated money gift and they looked after our home, making sure the heat was going and they continue to check on the house. All of our neighbors watch over the house, checking on it every day.
Our neighbors helped my husband load a moving truck last month, our neighbors have mowed our yard regularly, our neighbors have helped us sell off vehicles and the rest of the possessions that we left behind, and my friends and neighbors have cleaned the house.
It’s a horrible thing to have to walk out the door and leave a home that we loved, with all the possessions. It’s a helpless feeling to be too sick to return to that home and give closure to those happy years of our lives It’s a very sad feeling to not be able to say goodbye to our friends and neighbors the way we would have liked to.
Words can not express the love and gratitude that we have for our friends, neighbors and the community of Oakfield. It is a community full of caring, selfless, compassionate people and I thank you all for welcoming us, and then sending us off, with your loving kindness.
