This afternoon I helped a friend by gathering the apples from his backyard apple trees. My friend is 88 years old and I have known him and his late wife for most of my life, for 23 years now. Sometime around 1998 he fulfilled a dream by planting a couple of apple trees in his backyard and they have been a source of pride and joy for him ever since. He has always shared some of his fall harvest with me and I have always turned some of the apples into deserts and shared them with him.
 
My friend has had a tough year. In April he lost his wife of 30 years, also a very good friend of mine, and shortly following that his own health challenges had him in and out of the hospital for months. This year, for the first time ever, he hasn't been able to gather his apples. He tried to gather them two weeks ago but couldn't finish.
 
I started cutting my friend's grass and taking care of his "heavier" outdoors chores 15 years ago, something I still continue to do, and today, after I finished with the lawn, I gathered up the rest of the apples and then wheeled them to the back door.