My sister died in my parents home. It was tragic, unexpected & horrible.
With in an hour of her death we had a huge amount of family & friends over. We have a very large loving family, they helped us immensely...did everything from cooking & cleaning to walking the dog to funeral arrangements. My one uncle who never shows emotions brought over my teenage brothers egg sandwiches from the deli every morning for about a month..I don't know why but that put a lump in my throat to write that.
My mom could barley speak for days & we were all in complete pain & shock. Right after the tragedy happened my brothers said my parents should sell the house, but within days they said they could never imagine selling the house, as they felt my sister's memories (all of which before her death were beautiful) were in that house. My mom & I finally cleaned her room & organized her stuff after about two years.
My parents neighbors lit little candles along the whole side walk on my parents side of the street for a week after my sister died, they did it again on the anniversary a year later. They also planted a beautiful little tree in my parents yard, & helped plant a memorial garden with my mom. The neighbors also donated to her memorial scholarship & still participate in a fund raiser we organized for that. The countless amount of food, love and prayers they gave to my family was amazing.
Just like every family (actually every person) deals with grief differently I guess so does every neighbor. I'm just thankful that we had people surrounding us that weren't peering around the hedges at carpet trucks, counting my parents cars (my mom actually drives a Mercedes, but she had it before we lost my sister so I guess that's OK.) or gossiping around the neighborhood about terrible details. My parents neighbors gave them empathy and grace at a terrible time. They reserved their judgment, they had class.