Does that include HER?????

So we have this neighbor to the right of us, who has made it known several times that she isn't exactly thrilled to be living next to a family of six. Four of those being rambunctious kiddies. She actually had problems with us even before we moved in. When Ray would work over here at night hammering inside, she would knock on the door at 10:00 pm and tell him that he needed to stop because it was too loud. So we honored her request. Then when we moved in, she would knock on our door at 2:00 in the afternoon and tell me that the kids were playing in the yard too loudly. She wanted to know if we could work out a schedule of when the kids would play in the yard. I kindly told her that would be impossible and we left it at that. Then a few weeks later she came over at 8:30 pm to tell us she could hear our kids playing in their bedrooms! This time she caught Ray after a long days work...and there was no filter. (don't worry, no profanity. But no niceties either) We hadn't heard from her since.........

until yesterday. Her latest request is for me to work out a laundry schedule with her, because apparently the smell of our clean laundry drying in the dryer gives her a headache. She wants to know when she can open her window and not smell our CLEAN laundry. (keep in mind this lady smokes) At this request I let out a deep sigh and just said, " there is no way I can tell you when I am going to be doing laundry. Sometimes we are doing it at 2:00 a.m. if our kids are sick" Her reply was, " I know a normal family only has a little bit of laundry to do and only does it one or two days a week, but you guys are different." I just kind of stared at her with a slight smile on my face. By that, she realized a schedule is not going to happen and went inside.

I have been thinking alot about this situation. My first reaction is that this lady has "issues" and it is perfectly fine to ignore her request. But the more I think about it, the question comes to mind if this is who Jesus was talking about in Matthew 22:39 when he says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself?" Is it really HER He is talking about? Isn't Jesus talking about the nice widower Ann who lives on our left, who we happily take fresh baked cookies to, and check on when the power goes out. Or Becky and Bill who live on her left, who always take a minute or two to play catch with Benny and Will before speeding off in their red VW bug? Or Robbi and Conrad who live to their left, who I can call any morning and have Hannah catch a ride with them to school. Or even the lesbian couple who live across from us, who work on their front lawn in skin tight, jean cut-off shorts every Saturday. Isn't that who Jesus is talking about. He can't mean our neighbor and her crazy requests. And if He does, what does that mean I should do in this situation?

The conclusion I have come to is this:

I think it would be fine to ignore her request. She is a little bit irrational. But I also think their is a higher road to take, and that would be to treat her as though I do love her, and to consider her needs the same way I would of a family member that I truly do love. And if a family member was sensitive to smell, I would switch to scent free laundry detergent.

What are your thoughts?