When Layla Cable finally coaxed the Japanese magnolia on the border of her property to grow about ten years ago, she discovered that she was terribly allergic to the flowers.

Each spring, she would consider getting rid of the tree as she braced herself for two weeks of watery eyes and constant sneezing—but her next-door-neighbor John C. Jenkins would implore her to keep the delicate, fragrant tree standing. It was simply too beautiful to knock down.

The question of what to do with the magnolia became a sort of running joke between the neighbors, who were drawn together over the years by the proximity of the quirky, multi-colored family houses lining their Cambridge neighborhood halfway between Harvard and Porter Square.

The neighbors were not close friends, Cable says, but she delivered Jenkins baked goods on the holidays, they cleaned snow off each other’s sidewalks each winter in an attempt to avoid the inevitable flooding, and they talked at the occasional neighborhood potluck or outside Jenkins’ neat gray house.

They’d chat about Allen and Dylan (Jenkins’ overweight housecats suffering from feline leukemia), possible home improvements or Cable’s three children.

“[Jenkins] was the kind of man you’d want in your life, or in your daughter’s life,” Cable says. “He was one of the kindest men on the street.”

“He would meet people, and be so nonjudgmental, so good at listening,” says longtime friend Mike Stone. “He was just one of those people, when you met him you’d want to meet him again.”

When Jenkins suddenly died on the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 last Tuesday, the 45-year-old lover of cats, fine cuisine, Puccini and old movie posters left his family, close friends, coworkers and comfortable neighborhood shocked and off-balance. Even as they continue with their day-to-day routine—walking the dog, playing with the children, grabbing sandwiches at Oxford Spa—Jenkins’ neighbors have spent the past nine days unsure, struggling to regain their footing after last week’s terrorist attacks touched them, quite literally, in their own backyard.

“I’ve had a lot of tragedies in my family,” says Cable, a Palestinian who has lived in the West Bank, Beirut, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. “But the thing that shook me hard is the fact that it was somebody kind, somebody next door. I thought that I come to Cambridge, I’m safe. And then I say, ‘Oh my God, in a little community like Cambridge, you can lose your neighbors.’”

BF: “A Real Success Story”

Jenkins had worked since May of last year in the John Hancock Tower as a corporate offices service manager for Charles River Associates (CRA), a consulting firm. Before joining CRA, he held management positions at ADD Inc. Heidlage & Reece, P.C., Commonvest Associates Trust, Landmark Foundation and Palmer & Dodge, LLP. Last Tuesday, Jenkins was on his way to L.A. to meet with the West Coast branch of CRA, a voyage he made two or three times this year as he helped the company expand its domestic and international offices.

“Even in the short time he was here, he made a lot of friends,” says Cynthia Butler, CRA’s vice president of human resources. “He was really loved.”

Butler pauses for a second before continuing. “We’re having a very hard time here.”

The consulting firm’s website links to a tribute to Jenkins that details his achievements.