This Old House

This weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my great-grandparents old home. Built around 1909, this craftsman-style house had suffered through two other owners before landing in the lap of the wonderful couple who is lovingly restoring it.

They found me on a genealogy site, and were interested to know more about the family who had lived in the house; my family. Now, even my own relatives' eyes glaze over when I start talking about my family history. Just because you are related is no guarantee that they will shout for joy over your newly found 1850 census record for your shared great-great grandmother. Imagine my excitement to find someone who wants to know every bit of minutia surrounding these particular relatives!

As I toured the house, I could feel the energy of my relatives, which included several great aunts and uncles whom I'd known when I was a child, two of whom had lived long enough to meet my own kids. Seven children had lived there, four of them born there. One small boy had drowned on the property. Their young mother had died there. Mostly, I could feel the love they had shared. And so I was even more pleased to find that the new owners had turned half of "the back 40" into a community garden for the neighbors whose homes backed onto it.

Perhaps because my own childhood homes have long been sold, and as an Army wife, I have no permanent home, this old family home takes on special meaning for me. I am truly grateful that this wonderful couple has allowed me such a precious gift!