I currently live at home with my Dad in the house my He and my Mom built 25 years ago. After my Mom passed away from breast cancer in 2009, I moved back home into my old bedroom and have lived here for the past three and a half years. About six weeks ago, my Dad and I began to prepare to move out of this house. For good. My Dad will be moving to a townhouse in the Annapolis area and I will be moving to an apartment of my own.
For security reasons I am not comfortable showing a photo of the house, but I will paint you a little picture. The house set back in the woods. Leading up to the house is a long, winding driveway, perfect for sledding in the winter. At the top of the driveway sits a large house on a hill. Behind the house is a large deck. Behind that is a pool, perfect for those hot summer months. This house is beautiful, and it has been home for me since I was less than a year old.
This past Saturday, a furniture company from Pennsylvania sent a truck and two young guys down to pick up items we arranged for them to sell. They handed over a check and took with them many things including the bedroom set my sister grew up with and the bedroom set my Mom and Dad used while my sister and I grew up. My sister and three of my cousins then arrived and we began to empty the house out little by little. Six hours and three truckloads later, our furniture had made new homes in our family's houses, as this house gets more and more empty.
In the midst this, my sister found a junior bridesmaid dress she wore in my cousin's wedding in 1995. My sister was 10 at the time. Did my 25 year old self immediately try it on? Oh, absolutely.
{Please excuse the obnoxious head tilt.}
I then proceeded to dance around the house. And into the driveway.
I could write a love letter to this house. I might one day. It has been the backdrop of our lives for the past twenty five years. I often sit and think about all this house has seen. The family members and friends and pets that have circulated through. And the memories. The memories are endless.
This house was there for us through it all. Good things, as well as bad things. This house was here throughout my Mother's battle with cancer. Her and my Dad's bedroom, where she recovered from her mastectomy. The dressing area that held her jewelry and makeup and her medicine, wig and hats. The kitchen that she would come down to every morning, dressed for the day even if she had nowhere to go. The deck, where she would sit outside and read. The computer room, where she would research symptoms and medicine and side effects for her friends in METAvivor. The living room, where she slept at night when she was too weak to walk up the stairs. And on days when I called her while she was on disability from work and she would be, "at home relaxing."
These past six weeks have been surreal. Sad is such a small and tiny word compared to everything I am leaving behind. I am leaving my home. The place where I come from. The place where I grew up. And I am leaving my mother there.
xo-K
