Love your neighbor

To the editor:
    Our neighborhood on Main Street, as well as the town of Houlton, lost a wonderful person in a traffic accident that tragically took the life of Barry Clark. Our family became next-door neighbors to Barry and his wife Cheryl just over three years ago. Within the first couple of days, we first met them as they came to our door with home-cooked goodies and snacks to welcome us to the neighborhood.
    My wife and I have been married 19 years and we have had lots of neighbors in that time as military life, as well as a career in state service, has caused us to move no less than 12 times. Needless to say, we have had many great neighbors over those years, but none hold a cake (pardon the pun) to Barry and Cheryl Clark. Countless times they have brought us and our children meals, homemade bread, cakes, brownies, ice cream, popsicles, and numerous other goodies. Barry wouldn’t think twice about mowing our lawn, raking the leaves in our yard, or offer to lend a hand when some heavy lifting was being done. In fact, the day before Barry passed away, our family was out of town, and upon our return home late Sunday night, I noticed that someone had mysteriously raked the leaves in our yard. As usual, … Barry had struck again!
    We were all devastated to hear the news the very next day, and we didn’t even have a chance to thank him. When our Savior was asked by a Scribe (or an attorney of their day) what was the greatest commandment of all? Jesus responded with two answers. The latter was “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. Barry Clark most certainly did that. He will truly be missed by our family and we consider it an honor to have gotten to know him.
    Our love goes out to Cheryl, Andy, Heather and the rest of their family in this, their time of need. We have considered it a blessing to know them and to be their neighbors.
The Drews
Houlton