That Old House....

This is the first blog of the New Year...and though 2010, one of the worst years that I can remember has ended, 2011 holds msystery as it unfolds one day at a time...



For the last 4 or 5 years I have watched the house next door sit empty and have wondered everyday what will they do with this house? Finally last week the owner had said she would like to sell it and gave us the opportunity to see and act first on it. As long as our family home has been, so has this one. These were your neighbors of your childhood and at that time people stayed in their homes forever...it wasn't a transient type of neighborhood. The family that lived in that house were simple people, a Mom a Dad and two sons. The husband was huge and as a child I was always amazed when his wife would do the laundry and hang out their clothes on the line and you just never saw such big pants....he loved his yard and to garden, he could fix anything much like my own father. One year their oldest son at 17 drown and everything in that house changed....from personal experience I understand his pain. We came to know the pain of the 2nd child who's life also stopped the day his brother died. His parents were so overwhelmed with grief, that he just faded into the woodwork of their lives. I am sure he was loved and cared for, but from his own lips nothing was the same. Since that time, the father has passed away, the mother in her 90's passed away in August of 2009 and by December 2009 the last surviving child passed away at 58. The house then became his wife's responsibility. I have literally watched this house everyday from the morning with just a blush of light to Christmas morning when it has sat in quiet solitude, sad looking...waiting....



We walked thru the house yesterday to see the condition and consider it's purchase. I was amazed, yes it needs work all homes do, but the furniture was not grand, the style was simple and the most amazing thing was a dining room that I didn't even know they had. The table, the dishes, the quality was amazing. I am a sucker for old homes, small children and animals....but this house calls to me and is looking for the oppotunity to be a home again, to be filled with people who will laugh, live and love....to shine brightly and be restored to a useful life, isn't that what we all want... I don't know what the outcome will be, but I would hope that we can help it to become a home again for someone....to see flowers bloom in the yard where weeds have grown instead...to be a place of pride and have a presence. The house itself is full of history and I know I've been told that I am to sentimental and this would be more of a business arrangement than a personal mission. I know that but it doesn't mean that feelings can just be turned off or history ignored. It just reminds me of life itself, there are many times when we feel abandoned or hopeless...maybe that is why old sad homes touch my soul....

Well old house whatever the outcome, please know that you are not alone and someone watches from the shadows....my wish for you is to live and breathe again....and surround some family with the warmth of your shelter..