I am glad he got the burial he deserved. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-wwii-vets-body-lay-unclaimed-at-the-morgue-then-neighbors-did-something-beautiful/2016/04/08/0418546e-fcf6-11e5-886f-a037dba38301_story.html
Amazing. Just a good guy for whom everyone around him felt affection. The difference between a potter's field and immortalization at Arlington was that group who had received his affection deciding to return it in-kind just one more time. "Don’t bother, I prefer the breeze." Today, so do I. Thanks, Abner.
It is nice to see the neighors so concerned for a man that was practically a stranger to them. "The virtue of Yi is considered as the virtue of Righteousness. This virtue accompanies the virtue of Jen primarily because it dictates a man on how to act for his neighbor according to his identity".
They knew what they did about him because they'd had conversations with him in the building lobby or on the front stoop. But the article also describes how the man was self-reliant, actively brushing off offers of assistance. So it fits that they knew him well enough to like him and want to see him off properly, without actually being close, as such. Also, this isn't an old neighborhood where everyone knows everyone, this is a transitory apartment building in Washington, D.C. As someone who grew up here, trust me, this story is as heart warming as it gets. It's more common that you die and no one even knows it until they call the building super because they've noticed the smell of your rotting corpse.
Unfortunately, that's very true, and more common than most people know. Great story Abner, thanks for sharing the link.