Back when I was a renter I lived next to this really grumpy, unpleasant older lady. She would never say hi on the hallways (pretended to not know me or just grumbled something)….

Back when I was a renter I lived next to this really grumpy, unpleasant older lady. She would never say hi on the hallways (pretended to not know me or just grumbled something). One time she threw my clothes on the floor in the laundry room because she needed to use the machine.

And she ALWAYS came knocking to complain about the noise even when I didn’t have the music or TV very loud at all. I was always apologetic and respectful but it also bothered me that she seemed to be so easily annoyed.

Anyway one friday night I had a party and I had a LOT of people over. Obviously it got very loud and out of control and as always she came and knocked on the door and I didn’t even notice it at first, one of my guests had to tell me she had come by and was very angry.

So I decided to write her a nice note and slip it under her door on my way out, along the lines of “Dear neighbor, I am sorry we bothered you with the noise last night and that I didn’t have a chance to apologize in person.

I try to be respectful and keep the noise down but once in a while I like to have guests over and it gets a little loud. I’ll be extra careful next time and try to warn you in advance. Thanks for understanding and have a nice day”

I didn’t expect it to make much of a difference, but when I came back there was a note from her under my door. She said she appreciated the nice note and was so thankful to have a considerate neighbor. She proceeded to basically tell me her life story,

saying she was a single mother and had a son about my age, she also really enjoyed entertaining but didn’t have a chance to do that much anymore, but she totally understood etc etc. From that day forward she was always extremely nice to me every time we met on the hallways, and she never came back to complain about the noise at all.

I guess she was a little lonely and grumpy, and it felt nice that even a little gesture like writing her a note helped her see that people can be good sometimes too.