NashvilleJuly 29, 2015

Nashville

Susan Roethemeyer

susansmr@juno.com

A Neighborly Tribute

Last Friday morning saw the untimely passing of one of our neighbors, Alan Bowers.

He was a semi retired farmer with a huge garden and a passion for sharing the produce.

We’d be on our porch or in the yard, and we would hear, “You want some tomatoes?”(or cucumbers, or zucchini)

And of course we would answer, “Yes!” because who can grow better tomatoes (or cucumbers or zucchini) than a farmer?

He had gotten the farm from his father, Lee Bowers, who also was an auctioneer. Alan looked so much like his dad, that I sometimes expected to hear him belt out the auctioneer’s song!

He was an animal lover, babysitting a “granddog” sometimes, and keeping some cats, along with his wife.

Sometimes Jill and I would trade cat stories on the patio. Once she told me that Alan had taught his favorite cat to eat popcorn!

Alan often told me that he and my Dad, Ralph, were buddies from way back. They had worked together in some store in the past (but I now forget the name of it.)

Several years after my Dad passed away, Alan and Jill bought our house. They had to tear it down. It was hard to see the old house go, but we could not afford to repair it.

They let me feed my cats on their property until I had a place to keep them with me.

Alan loved to work on his house, and his garden. He had an old Allies Chambers tractor that he had fixed up and sometimes displayed or drove in parades.

He also had a fringed surrey that he sometimes displayed with wooden horses pulling it.

But he also still loved working on the farm that he owned with his son. It was while doing farming business that he lost his life.

He was doing something that he loved.