How Two Neighbors Grew Even Closer During the Pandemic

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SW: My name is Stephen Wilder.

NF: And my name is Nicole Figaro.

SW: And I’ve been living in this building for about 30 years, and when I moved in, Nicole was already here.

NF: Yeah, I moved here in 1976.

SW: Well, we’ve been helping each other out, for all the time we’ve been neighbors. Water each other’s plants and pick up each other’s mail when we’re away. Since the pandemic, I have learned a lot about Nicole even though we’ve been neighbors for 30 years. And actually one of the things that I remember that we shared during the pandemic is every night at seven o’clock, we would

NF: At the window.

SW: Stick our heads, you know, stick our heads out the window and clap for the health care workers.

NF: Yeah.

SW: And then we would wave to each other out the window.

NF: Yeah, that was the beginning of the pandemic.

SW: Yeah. I don’t feel like I’m very good with technology.

NF: Yeah, but you help me out with the computer.

SW: I might be a little better than Nicole so she makes me feel very tech savvy. We really need that technology to stay connected more.

NF: Yeah.

SW: Because I’m a designer, I have a printer, so I can print out photographs for Nicole, of Nicole’s daughter and grandson I print out the crossword puzzle in the morning, and slip it under Nicole’s door, with a little note.

NF: I have all of them.

SW: You saved them?

NF: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have all of them.

SW: When I was going into work, I was always running late and I would step out the door and Nicole would poke her head out and say, well you know, “How are you? I need something.”

NF: “You’re late again”

SW: And I’d say, “Nicole, Nicole, I’m late. I have to go to work.” But Nicole didn’t want to bother me on the telephone, so she would just wait and hear me because we share a wall so we can really hear everything. And then often when I would come home from work, I would be carrying takeout for, like, pizza or something and she’d say, “Why are you eating that fried chicken, Kentucky fried chicken?” or something. And then she would give me healthy food to eat.

NF: I don’t know how many times I did that, not really often.

SW: You did it a lot. And I thought you cooked it and then I found out you did not.

NF: No, I don’t cook.

SW: We have fun together.

NF: Oh yeah.