Angst To Regret

I've mentioned the angst I've experienced with my neighbor in the past. It annoyed me that her adult children with questionable, possibly criminal activities, lived with her. It's not the fact that they're adults that bothers me; it's the "possible criminal activities." Plus, I suspect they leave shopping carts around the neighborhood. That's at least a misdemeanor. I know, gasp!

You can't pick your neighbors, I know, but I figured you don't have to be friendly. So, I never smiled or said hello, or even looked their way, just hoping they would move out soon.

I heard today that my neighbor's daughter was murdered while she was visiting a friend. I feel really bad. Now I think, would an occasional hello have really been so horrible? Whether the "possible criminal activies" had anything to do with her death or not, my neighbor has experience the worse type of loss, the death of a child. And my heart goes out to her. I regret that I couldn't find the capacity to be a little, even just a tad kinder to a fellow human being while she was alive.