At 98, a Navy veteran moved in with the family next door

Most of us know our neighbors well enough to wave, and maybe to grab a package off their porch. Ross Longo's neighbors in Lake Placid, Florida, know him well enough to buy his bedding. On November 7, the New York Post told the story of Longo, 98, a Navy veteran of World War II and Korea. He has lived next door to Sevastian Munguia-Barajas, now 26, and his parents for more than twenty years, and last month the family moved him into their home.

Longo has no relatives nearby, and everyday tasks have gotten hard. This is a man who joined the Navy in 1943 at 15, lying about his age to follow his older brother. He later drove trucks, worked as a carpenter and sang country music for $340 a week. "They adopted me, and I adopted them," he told the Post. Sevastian put it his own way: "I consider him my grandpa, honestly."

The family's own account is less poetic and more useful. "Although we are not related by blood, Ross is considered part of our family," Sevastian wrote on a GoFundMe page he started when people asked how to help. Then comes the shopping list: a new recliner, bedroom furniture, bedding. Longo's pension and Social Security don't cover all he needs, so donors have given more than $31,000. Sevastian also holds his power of attorney and is on his bank account, the kind of trust that usually takes a birth certificate.

Psalm 68 is a victory song credited to David, and in the middle of all its marching it stops to say what God is like. He looks after orphans and stands up for widows, and when it comes to the lonely, the psalm says where he puts them. The verb is the surprise. A lonely man can be helped with a visit or a check, and those are good things. The psalm puts him inside a household, with a shared kitchen, a bedroom down the hall and people who will be there in the morning.

That is also where it costs the most, in money and in hours.

Today is Veterans Day, and the country will thank Longo for his service. He and Sevastian plan to mark it together with a meal and one of his favorite beers. Twenty years as the man next door became a room in the house. That is usually how the psalm's promise gets kept: somebody nearby decides to make room.

Today is also the birthday of someone special to these pages, with a heart for the people nobody else has made room for. Stories like Ross Longo's are the kind she hopes to see more of: a bed, a table, and people who call you family.