Frances Gavin

Mrs. Frances Mahone Gavin died Monday, January 12, 2015. Graveside services will be held on Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 2:00PM at Riverside Cemetery with the Reverend Harriette Simmons officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Christ Church, 582 Walnut Street, Macon, Georgia 31201. Mrs. Gavin, daughter of the late Roland T. Mahone and the late Ruth Hardeman Mahone, was predeceased by her husband, William Sloan Gavin, her son, W. S. (Tony) Gavin, Jr., and her sister, Ruth Mahone Harris (Kenneth). Mrs. Gavin graduated from Wesleyan College. She was a member of the Junior League of Macon, The Town and Country Garden Club, The Morning Music Club, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia and Christ Episcopal Church. Mrs. Gavin is survived by her daughter, Susan Estelle Gavin; grandsons, William Sloan Gavin III (Morgan), Walter Roland Gavin and Kenneth Lamar Gavin; great-granddaughter, Mary Paloma Gavin; great-grandsons, William Sloan Gavin IV and David Mahone Gavin; nephew, Charles M. Gavin IV (Carol); nieces, Nancy Gavin Mixson (Jim) and Lynn G. Davis (Mike). Register online at www.hartsmort.com . Hart’s Mortuary and Crematory at the Cupola has charge of arrangements.

“Mark, can you run up to Sandra’s and see if she has a couple of eggs I can borrow?” Mother asked me as she looked up from the mixer that was full of cake batter. “Tell her I’ll replace them when I go to the store.” Off I would run to our next-door neighbor’s house in search of two eggs, returning moments later with them in my hands!

In our neighborhood, this was a common occurrence. It happened on an almost daily basis between houses. We children were like bankers as we ran from house to house borrowing one day and then re-depositing the next. In fact, most of the time, the person who loaned the desperately needed item was rewarded dividends in the form of a slice of cake or a piece of pie. That’s how I fondly remember neighborhoods!

Somehow over time the concept of a good neighbor has changed. Only on rare occasions these days is a neighbor even home to borrow anything from and, chances are if they are there, their pantry is barren since not many of us cook any more.

After Debra and I got married in the early 1980s we moved to Atlanta for a few years. To be honest, I cannot remember a single neighbor while we lived there except for the one who resided below our first apartment who claimed our two-year-old daughter made too much noise running around!

Then we moved back to Macon and directly into an apartment complex where we were fortunate enough to live next door to a wonderful lady. It was good to know that only a wall separated us from someone who, if you needed anything, would be there in a jiffy! Then in 1986 we moved into a small cottage on Ingleside Avenue and, with our luck continuing, found a wonderful neighborhood full of very nice, friendly people!

Right beside us and down a little slope lived Frances and Sloan Gavin. We actually met Frances one day while she was trying to coax (although that might not be the right word) her dog Sassy back into her house. We had two small children and, of course, they loved Miss Frances and her fluffy dog! And, so did we!

When Christmas rolled around that year, I felt the need to decorate every square inch of our small abode. The side of our house that Frances saw from her house was full of large windows. The windows were in our living room, dining room and a small den on the lower level. We were young and ambitious and I didn’t know quite when to stop the decorating process. Even to this day, if one decoration is good with me then twenty has to be better! Plus, it was our first real home together as a family and we certainly wanted to decorate it to the nines to shine in our new neighborhood!

From Frances and Sloan’s vantage point in their house, they had a bird’s eye view of all of our blinking, glittering and sparkling decorations. When I think back on all that we used to put up, my mind starts to flutter as it tries to recreate all the cosmic embellishments that hung in and on that side of our house. After all, it was the eighties!

I used to notice Frances gazing for long periods of time in our direction from her small front porch as she entered and left her house. Of course, they were invited to our first Christmas party where I overheard her talking to another one of our guests. “I don’t even want to put up a tree after seeing all this,” she was half-way whispering. “Sloan told me the other day to just install a mirror on the side of our house so that we could just “reflect” the Ballard’s Christmas directions directly back onto our house!”

We had the good fortune of living next to Frances and Sloan for seven years. With each year our friendship got stronger and Frances told us we could never move until she passed away. We used to laugh and laugh about that but I don’t think she was kidding. We had some wonderful times there side by side on Ingleside Avenue.

As our children grew up our house grew smaller and Debra and I knew it was time for us to look for a larger home. We certainly didn’t tell our dear neighbor, Frances, that we were about to put our house on the market. Finally, our real estate agent said she was going to place the “For Sale” sign in our front yard. “Please give us an extra day so that we can talk to Frances before it goes up!” we begged.

I can still remember when I pulled into my driveway at exactly the same time as Frances was pulling into hers. We both reacted in horror at seeing the sign that was already in our front yard! I almost wrecked my car trying to quickly park and into our back door. I made sure to lock it behind me before hiding behind the television cabinet!

Rap, rap, rap I heard moments later as Frances loudly knocked on the back door she had just seen me enter. “Marwk, I know you are in there!” she yelled with her distinctly Southern drawl, “You promised me y’all would not move until after I died!”

Being the wonderful neighbor Frances was she forgave us for moving and leaving her there. But, the good part of this story is that we only moved around the block. So, we are actually STILL neighbors and have continued to visit each other and have fun!

Her husband Sloan has since passed away as has their dog Sassy. Our children are grown and have long ago moved on. A mirror was never installed between our two homes on Ingleside Avenue but we did have some fun times at the Gavin’s house on Christmas Day.

Just like a good neighbor, Frances has always been there for us over the years whether we lived directly beside her or around the corner. Friendships are made in neighborhoods and many times last forever! If you don’t know your neighbors, this is the perfect season to spread some holiday cheer while starting something in your area that can last all year.

We love you, Frances! Merry Christmas from our neighborhood to yours!