Dealing with the aftermath

Today I am heading up to The Condo to help my mother's neighbor. It is another one of those "neighbor" issues that I've written about countless times, and that send me fuming into the battlefield. Growing up, we didn't really have neighbor issues, or if we did, they were dealt with face to face and everyone moved on to live their lives and remained friendly. At least that is the way I saw and remember things and my mother never disputed it.

When my parents first bought The Condo in a small complex with four buildings and less than thirty units all of the neighbors worked together. There was a board that managed the place with a president that did all the repairs and pool cleaning himself. As he aged other neighbors leaped in to assist; my mother's next door neighbor, Hank (name has been changed to protect the innocent), being one of them. Everyone fixed up things when they saw things that needed fixing and everyone communicated with the president when they had issues, questions, etc. It was all very friendly in the beginning.

Then things began to change as the economy changed. People sold high. Buyers bought and rented. The board changed hands. A management company was brought in. All went smoothly for a few years because the board consisted of those owners from the beginning of time, a simpler time, but as more people moved in and wanted changes to their unit or to the grounds or to the pool a coup was formed to oust those board members. Suddenly the complex wasn't so friendly anymore.

I tried to stay out of those things, but my mother was often embroiled in them despite her health. She sat on the board for awhile until she got tired of attending the meetings via phone conferences, until the stress was too much, and until she realized no one was listening anymore. Once while coming back from a doctor's appointment she was accosted in the parking lot by an unhappy resident who was part of the coup. I was unloading groceries and carrying them upstairs while she talked to my mother. When her voice raised I hiked back downstairs to collect my mother and told her that the grass wasn't always greener on the other side. I reminded her that she and her little group were staging their coup because they wanted changes that would benefit them and that once they were in charge someone else would take their places too. That went over her head. She lasted a year as a board member and recently resigned.

The big saga now is with a couple that moved in two years ago. They wanted to make some improvements on their condo and the landscaping, but found out that what they wanted to do was against the condo regulations. They argued. They lost. They worked to overthrow the board, succeeded, and now are making waves by doing what they want. Against the rules? They are in charge it doesn't matter.

The woman, I shall refer to her as PF, doesn't care for my mom's next door neighbor, SA. He recently trimmed two branches on a tree that grew up between our two units. The two branches had been dead for some time and SA was complaining that the ground crew wasn't dealing with them. So he thought he would just fix that himself like he use to do in the old days. He trimmed them. While he was doing so PF, who lives way across the parking lot in an area off from the rest of us, came charging over to confront him. She yelled. He yelled. She called the police. The police sent to his house. Two days later a bulldozer pulled out the tree and another tree was planted in its place. Reasoning? The tree died due to SA's trimming of the tree.

So now we have a legal issue. The board wants SA to pay for the new tree. SA is not planning on paying for a tree that was perfectly fine before a bulldozer ripped it out of the yard. Lawyers are involved. Petitions are being distributed for signatures. SA is all a twitter. His wife is all a twitter because he is all a twitter. My mom use to be his sounding board. She could talk him off the ledge. That has become my job now.

I'm heading up there to research files regarding the condo. I shall search the Internet for Florida condo regulations. I shall sign the petition. I shall listen to SA while he grumbles and gripes. I shall shake my head at the stupidity of it all. Somewhere along the way through the past we forgot what it was to be a neighbor; to talk to one another and just be...well...neighborly. And because we have forgotten this we will all pay through our wallets and through our hearts. And that is just plain sad.