My visitor...

Almost 3 years ago, I lost my dear neighbor Roger, to a stroke. He was truly a god-send in our lives. We were a young family just starting out, learning the ropes of juggling a toddler and a kindergartner, trying to figure out how to deal with the hubby traveling all the time, home improvements, and dealing with a new neighborhood. Roger was there for it all. He gave advice, told funny stories, indulged my kids when they rambled on and on about anything, spoiled them at Christmas and birthdays, we held daily "meetings" at the fence or on the front porch. He was a lovely man and I'm so glad that we had 3 years of memories with him. To this day, I still miss him and catch myself talking to him daily.
The summer before he passed, I was trying to figure out why a solar light garden ornament wasn't working. It was left here by the previous owners and it had never worked. Roger hated to see me struggling with anything, so he came over with some tools and proceeded to take it apart. An easy fix it was not. He thought perhaps it really wasn't solar powered, but needed batteries. That wasn't the case. He thought the panels needed a good cleaning, but that wasn't the problem. He took the pieces into his garage and continued to tinker with it for a few days. Nothing made the darn thing work. He felt defeated and came to one of our fence meetings and told me that he just couldn't figure it out. It wasn't a big deal to me, it was still pretty even though it didn't work. He put it all back together and I stuck it back in my garden.
Now fast forward to the week Roger passed away. I was out in the backyard with the dog, right around dusk and all of a sudden something caught my eye. It was the garden ornament, shining brightly for the first time ever. I knew in my heart that it was Roger letting me know he was still around. I sat on the back steps and cried and talked to Roger. As the light dimmed, I said my good-byes again. How lucky was I that he came back to "see" me. I came inside and told the kids and Jason about my visitor. They kind of looked at me like I was crazy, but Roger meant a lot to us all, so they didn't really doubt my story too much. Since that time, he's come back to visit a handful of times. It's never at a certain time, just surprise pop-ins. The kids and Jason have witnessed it and we have all talked to him and gotten excited when we see that light shining. The last visit was around my birthday and when I peeked my head in the door to let them know we had a visitor out back, the kids came to the window and waved, and Jason checked it out on his way to the garage.
I will never be parting with that broken lawn ornament. It's my connection to a great man, who left this Earth much too early.