Carson's last summer
I was standing at the kitchen sink, rinsing out my coffee cup, when I heard the sound of the lawn mower being fired up, and I couldn't help but chuckle as I peeked out the window and saw my industrious young neighbor, Carson Taylor pushing the machine along. The lawn needed mowing maybe three times a month, but this must have been the third time young Carson had come over to do it this week. I didn't have the heart to tell him not to do it, because he seemed to enjoy doing it, or at least that was what he claimed when he offered to start doing it last year. Before then, my life partner Jeff had done the lawn work while I tended to the gardening, but after he passed away in that car accident almost two years ago, Carson volunteered his services, and when I checked with his mother to make sure it was okay with her, she was all for it. Times have changed, I thought to myself. It had become common knowledge that I was gay, but in the ten years Jeff and I had lived in this neighborh...