All Write, Already!

As my parents prepare to sell their home (my home from ages 5 - 22) I am filled with complex emotion. While I will miss the house greatly, I know there are issues with the property that will not allow them to stay into their later years, and better that they move now while they’re able-bodied and excited than when it becomes a necessity and, as an only child, I find myself doing must of the work on my own.

The best parts of this transition are revisiting the past through old boxes of toys, school projects and memorabilia. I convinced my mom to only save one large tub of my school papers (her favorites and mine), instead of the five or so she wished to keep. We’re doing a great deal of organization and clean up together.

The houses full of memories belonging to my grandparents have long been sold. When I close my eyes I can still remember walking through these houses, playing with my cousins, eating family dinners, playing outside  and staying overnight. I know the memories I keep from my childhood home will be stronger than any memory I can conjure from the houses my grandparents have lived in. Still, the idea brings a little shot of pain into my heart when I think that soon I’ll no longer be able to visit the gardens dad and I planted in the back yard. I won’t be able to sit cross-legged on the basement floor, follow their pet birds down the hallway as they explore the dark bedrooms, or sit on the back patio on a breezy afternoon.

Places that hold strong, happy memories mean a lot to me. I am lucky to have both of my parents alive and in relatively good health, and that is what I will concentrate on during this transition. However, I know that in the future I will find myself sneaking down the alley and peaking through the trees to see the yard I grew up in, and driving down the street and turning around in the driveway of their old house, just to feel the slope of the driveway under my cars tires again.