We're very fond of the street we live on, and fond of some of the caring, friendly people who inhabit it. At one time they were all the original home purchasers, many of whom have moved on elsewhere, and at that time we pretty well knew everyone. Since then, younger families have moved in, although the street, not a very long one, can boast that at least one-third, actually almost a half, of the home-dwellers are retired. It's a quiet street, with very little traffic, perfect for both the young and the elderly.

When we first moved into the house we've called home 26 years ago, the first neighbour to welcome us lived across the street, a personable young black couple. We became quite good friends, until a job opportunity beckoned them to move with their two young sons to the United States. In the first few years after their move they'd occasionally return to Canada and drop by to say hello.

Just as the dwellings on the street are mixed; condos as well as single-family dwellings, so are the residents. There are people who moved to Canada from Hong Kong, from Russia, from Egypt and Syria, Bangladesh and India among the native-born French and Anglophone Canadians. We're the only Jewish family on the street though one of our neighbours down the street is Jewish, his wife French-Canadian, just as two of the other mixed families are Egyptian men married to Canadian-born women not of Egyptian descent.

Their professions vary widely, from members of the military (mostly retired), to doctors (an oncologist from France married to a French Canadian), to a bus driver, a food wholesaler, an accountant, a social scientist, federal public employees, and all manner of tradespeople. Among the tradespeople is a painter; they're a family who are the second owners of a house across the street and down about a half-dozen houses from ours. Across from them live a young Syrian family, a couple with two young children, who moved into their home about four years ago.

For the most part, people get along well. One of our direct neighbours is a man, involved in IT, who is pathologically hostile to the presence of other people, a severe introvert; strangely enough his wife is a bright extrovert; what fun that must be to be living together as they have as long as we've known them. But people can accommodate themselves to almost anything.

Except, perhaps, direct malevolence aimed at them, threats that are alarming in their personal nature, emanating from a source that is explosively emotionally volatile. The young Syrian couple are the sweetest people imaginable, their two children the very picture of adorable good health and upbringing. Several years ago when they first moved in to their house they contracted with the painter who lives directly opposite them, to paint the interior of their house while they were away on a trip.

When they returned from their trip they found their house an utter shambles, and the painting which hadn't been completed despite ample time and promises never fulfilled, was a mess, neither the colours agreed upon nor the requests for special attention honoured by the painter or his crew. The result of which left a dissatisfied customer, shocked beyond words when he was presented with an invoice that was sky-high and certainly not reflective of their casual agreement of trust.

He found himself with little option but to pay, albeit under protest, and consider the experience a caution for the future. Never did he anticipate that the painter would mount a campaign to verbally assault him at every opportunity, and utter threats against him, his wife and their children. The latest incident recounted by the young man was that when he was walking with his five-year-old son along the street not far from their house, the painter drove his truck directly toward them; quick action averted a direct hit, but then the truck was turned around and the same thing was repeated.

Our friend called the police as he'd done on previous occasions. The painter had previously informed the police that he recognized he might have a problem with anger management and he'd think of doing something about it. On this occasion what he told the police was that he hated the young man and that was that. That elicited a stern warning, needless to say. The police then advised our friend to immediately take out a restraining order against the painter. This is a man who, when he sees the  young man out on the street, at the front of his house, will emerge from his own house to shout insults, profanities and threats at him. His wife has attempted to talk with the painter's wife, but to no avail; her attitude is little different from her husband's.

This man has more than an anger management problem; his vicious hostility is fearsome. Our best friends and neighbours on the street, Mohinder and Rajindar have their own story to tell, of the time Rajinder was walking up the street having embarked from the bus taking her home from work, only to have this dreadful man stand at the end of his driveway, directing loud abuse at her every step of the way.