To the Editor:

For many years, the house in between my house and Karen Schimmer’s house belonged to Tony and Ellen Yarmchuk. Tony and Ellen were the world’s best neighbors — always welcoming, ready caregivers for our pets and gardens when we were away, and a whole lot of fun.

Tony, meticulous when it came to tending his lawn and garden, would often sweep by on his rider mower when our grass was looking a little long. When Tony passed in the early ’90s, we thought a good way to honor him would be to buy some shrubs and plant a garden in the little triangular grassy area at the corner of Route 443 and Irish Hill Road in the heart of the hamlet.

Over the years, we have scrambled to get the triangle ready for the Memorial Day parade — getting rid of the debris from the winter and planting geraniums. The O’Connells would regularly mow the grass over the season. It became a favorite place to watch the parade. This year, unfortunately, there would be no parade, but we still wanted to get it looking nice for Memorial Day.

But the winter damage to the triangle was more extensive than other years. A truck had veered three feet into the plot and made deep ruts, which had torn up much of the grass, leaving heavy mounds of uprooted dirt and an unprecedented number of stones had been thrown into the little park, making it impossible to be mown without destroying one’s machine.

As I stood contemplating how we could possibly get this ready in a few days, along drove John Conklin, who stopped by the garden, said he had noticed all the damage, and asked if I would mind if he helped.

Mind? I was delighted!

Within a half an hour, John had returned with a little trailer filled with every gardening implement known to man, and in less than two hours we had most of the stones removed, the dirt pounded back in place, the area raked, the road dust swept, and the debris carted away.

In that moment, John reminded me of why we were attracted to Berne in the first place. It has always been a community where neighbors see a need and just figure out a way to be helpful.

Susan Hawkes-Teeter

Berne