Goodbye to our sweet neighbor

I must be honest, I can't remember his name but, he was a sweet old man. He loved his dogs, and cared for us all. He paid the young boys to mow his lawn and rake his leaves and didn't mind if they and other jumped in the piles a few times before picking them up. He had his habit of getting the newspaper early in the morning, and lit up like a Christmas tree when someone stopped to chat with him. He always had a friendly smile and a little wave for everyone who met his eye. I enjoyed seeing him and was fond of his presence. It seems like he has been the sweet elderly widowed neighbor for ever so long, even though I remember when his wife was alive, and when she died. I remember his trustee yellow lab who got him threw that time, and who accomponied him on many a fishing trips. I distinctly remember him saying he wouldn't be getting another dog when that one left him. I soon saw him bring home two black lab pups.

Today, his paper was left in it's receiving box, and a neighbor I always considered nosy and meddlesome saw it right away. Knowing he was diabetic she immediately called paramedics. He passed away last night, apparently in his sleep. I will miss seeing him when we both venture outdoors early in the morning, or when he loads up his dogs to go on a fishing trip. I'm glad he did not meet the fate of another neighbor a block or so down, who went undiscovered for 2 months. I am glad we never saw the day when him and his belongings were loaded up and moved to a nursing home. He was active and happy until he breathed his last. I'm unsure of it but, something tells me, maybe his smile and demeanor, or his lack of the "grumpy old man" attitude, he is in heaven, reunited with his wife.

Please lift up his family, I know he at least has a son left behind who came to visit him often. I can't help but worry and wonder about the two dogs he left behind, animal lover that I am.
It will be odd to have new neighbors in that house. He has lived their since I was a child.