Josephine Lawrence is 92 years old, and two weekends ago someone stole her bird bath. She has lived on Mission Hill, at 171 Hillside St., for more than five decades.
I heard about the theft last Monday and the next day walked from my apartment, on Alleghany Street, to Mrs. Lawrence’s house. I half expected an angry, old woman to come to the door. That wasn’t the case.
A man named Howard Peacock greeted me at the door. He said he’d met Mrs. Lawrence years ago, when he worked as a property manager for apartment buildings on Hillside and Eldora streets, and now they are great friends. Now, he takes the T from his house in Dorchester to Mrs. Lawrence’s every day. He also calls her every morning when he wakes up and every night before he goes to bed, just to make sure she’s doing OK.
“Howard’s like my own son,” she said. “He knows I don’t have any family here. He’s wonderful.”
Mrs. Lawrence spends most of her day in an armchair in her living room. When I arrived, she was watching “Family Feud” with Howard, but what she loves – more than anything, she said – is watching the birds. She can see them from her window and when it is warm outside, she’ll sit on her front steps. Howard, who will be 74 next month, bought the bird bath for her years ago; neither can remember exactly when.
On Sunday, Sept. 14, Mrs. Lawrence said she noticed her bird bath was gone. She didn’t call police, but her neighbors did. If she was angry or bitter about the whole incident, she certainly didn’t act it.
“Whoever has it now, I hope they enjoy it,” she said, gracefully and genuinely.
The reason she isn’t upset, it seems, is that she simply loves her neighborhood. Unlike many residents of the Hill, who remember when it wasn’t highly occupied by college students, Mrs. Lawrence said she likes her street now more than ever. It’s quieter now, she said.
“I love it here on the Hill,” she said. “Take me off of Mission Hill, I don’t know where I’ll go.”
On Tuesday, someone installed a new bird bath for Mrs. Lawrence. She didn’t ask anyone to do it, but someone did. And for that, she’s grateful.
“I thought it was wonderful,” she said.
I didn’t take Mrs. Lawrence’s bird bath, and you probably didn’t either. But somebody did, and it reflects badly on all of us. There’s always a chance, it wasn’t taken by college students, but the circumstantial evidence certainly points to us.
We need to learn to be respectful of our neighbors. We don’t have to get along, but everyone needs to learn that it’s not OK to steal an old lady’s birdbath. We can all be better.
While I don’t know who took Mrs. Lawrence’s bird bath, I do know who gave her a new one: Northeastern.
“We don’t know that this hateful act was committed by a Northeastern student, or even by a college student,” said interim university spokesperson Jim Chiavelli. “But we do know that we’re a member of the community and this was the decent thing to do for one of our neighbors.”
If you took Mrs. Lawrence’s bird bath, go to her house and tell her you’re sorry. Or, at the very least, stick an apology note in her mailbox. And while you’re there, take a minute and watch the birds. It just might be the best part of your day.
– Matt Collette can be reached at [email protected]
