Memories

Y'all haven't heard from me in a few days because the last couple have been a little emotional.  I was fortunate enough to know both of my great grandparents, and they kept me when I was little and my mom worked.  When my great grandmother died, we moved in with my great granddad, and we later moved out when my mom remarried - but we still have their house.  My great granddad passed away two Christmases ago, and even though it was time for that to happen, it's still hard because for Mom and I, they were such a big part of our lives.  And their house is full of their things, which are so, so emotional.

Their fiftieth anniversary china, furniture that my great granddad made himself, and all of the little knick knacks that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else, but that were a part of my childhood when I stayed there.

Now, there is the sweetest little family that is going to rent the house, and they have two tiny, adorable red-headed boys.  They're going to love it, and my great grandparents would have loved them and wanted them to enjoy the house.  But in order for them to move in, it's finally time to deal with all of those things that have been too hard for any of us to deal with all this time.  It's time to move the furniture, it's time to figure out what to do with the china, the ceramic kittens in a ceramic boot that I used to love as a kid, my great granddad's old .22 rifle, and the clock that always hung on the mantle and chimed every hour.

It's been hard to be engulfed in all of those things, it's hard to see the house a damp, dusty mess because we just haven't been able to deal with it. It's hard to say that we need to find room for all of the furniture that he made because we just can't stand to get rid of it, to give it to someone who doesn't understand what it meant.

It's hard for me to describe how things are there.  My great grandparents were wonderful, hard working country people, who had a small house but a lot of land, and a lot of outbuildings where they kept things that were just a part of living out there.  There's a woodworking shop full of saws, tools, and things that my great granddad made - everything from bluebird houses to outdoor swings, to furniture that you'd be proud to have in your living room.

There's another outbuilding with an old gas stove where I used to help my great grandmother can vegetables, and where she would set up her quilt frame and invite all the little old ladies from the neighborhood over to help her make her beautiful quilts.  There's a greenhouse that my great granddad built for her to keep her plants alive during the winter, because she loved nothing more than beautiful flowers and big, leafy plants.  Even though the glass in the greenhouse has mostly all broken now, and she's been gone for years, there must be a thousand buttercups, tulips, and lilies that still come up every year because she worked so hard to plant them.

It's been tough to figure out what to do with everything that needs to be moved, to decide what to get rid of and what to keep.  Mainly, it's just been hard to be at the house and see it as it is now, and not the way it was when my great grandparents (we all called them Ma and Pa) were there to keep it up and make it their simple but beautiful little home.

So sorry for my absence.  It's not over yet, but it felt good to write about it.  When you next hear from me, I'm sure I'll be my usual perky self.  Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!