94-year-old widower installs a pool for neighborhood kids after his wife’s death

After his wife of nearly 66 years passed away in 2016, widower Keith Davison of Minnesota said the new silence in his home was haunting.

“You just can’t imagine what it’s like,” said Davison, 94, in an interview with KARE 11. “You cry a lot. That’s just the way it is, because she’s not here.”

During the silence of the winter, an idea came to him: Davison decided to build a pool in his backyard that would be open to the small town’s children. (When accompanied by a guardian, of course.)

When neighbors first caught wind of the idea, they were skeptical that the neighborhood pool would happen. After all, the town of Morris doesn’t even have a public swimming pool. But Davison stayed true to his word and installed the impressive 32-feet long pool just in time for the start of this summer.

Then, just as Davison hoped, the kids came to play—and laugh.

“It’s him spreading joy throughout our neighborhood for these kids,” nearby mom-of-four Jaime Mundal said, adding she tells Davison he “adopted our whole neighborhood of kids.”

For widower Davison—who has three children of his own, but no grandchildren—becoming the designated neighborhood grandpa is a title he is happy to assume.

Now, Davison said he’s content to spend his time watching the kids have fun, chatting with the parents and then taking a dip of his own in the pool at the end of the day. As he said, it sure beats the alternative he experienced after his wife’s passing: “I’m not sitting by myself looking at the walls.”

Motherly Stories

I took my autistic daughter to see Taylor Swift overseas—and it was magical

Life

Dear Google Calendar: This is NOT a healthy relationship

Parenting

Hindsight: What I wish I would have known as a first-time parent