A helpful Bernal neighbor went out of his way this week to give Neighbor Suzanne a helping hand. She tells the tale:

Last Tuesday I took my 4 year old and a lot of dry cleaning onto the 23 bus at Glen Park, on our way to our place on Moultrie. I hooked the clothes hangers on the bar for people to hold on to and got into an animated conversation with my son.

When we hustled off the bus at Andover, I made sure I had all the usual things: Max’s stuffed animal, coat, artwork, etc, but I forgot all about the dry cleaning. I didn’t realize until I got home that I’d left it behind. I dragged my feet calling 311 because I knew I’d just spend half an hour on the phone and not be any closer to my missing sweaters. I felt pretty bad that I’d lost some of our favorite clothes.

A couple of days later I was walking home from The Good Life when I noticed a neatly handwritten sign at my eye level outside of the library playground. I paused to read and realized it was addressed to… me! Well, to “MOM.” A passerby was so taken with the fact that I was the person addressed that he took my picture in front of it. I felt relieved and thankful that someone had been thoughtful enough to put signs up for me.

I left a message at the number Jim left, he called back, and we agreed I’d come by the next night — he lives just a few blocks from us. He accepted the bottle of wine I brought, I accepted my wayward dry cleaning… and the rest is history.

PHOTO: Neighbor Suzanne with the sign that saved her dry cleaning