[Tax-chick]

My grandmother couldn’t stand accepting help from anyone. My father and uncle had to take her to the doctor by force sometimes.

In the case in the article, the situation shouldn’t have arisen, of course ... but if the a/c had simply stopped working, the end result might have been the same.

[cripplecreek]

My grandmother couldn’t stand accepting help from anyone. My father and uncle had to take her to the doctor by force sometimes.

After living next to the same people for 50 years or more like my grandmother did I think it stops being help or charity. I remember granny and her neighbors doing things whether they needed help or not. It became a simple matter of being neighborly.

I've been here for more than a decade and I'm still building that kind of relationship with my neighbors.