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A Good-Bye to No. 42

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By the chimney with care – December 2008

This little house’s welcome has never worn thin.

Even after welcoming one bouncing baby…

and then another…

and then another.

And still, her eaves never groaned under the weight that was our family.

This house, if her walls could whisper of the things she has seen…

They would boast the tale of a young couple just starting our life together, so far from home.

Of the painstaking care that same couple took in carrying each of our little ones over her threshold.

Of the many sleepless nights my bare feet have spent pacing up and down her hallways, an infant cradled in my weary arms.

Of the precious sound of tiny bare feet creeping down that same corridor to the safety of Mama and Daddy’s bedside.

She would stand tall to show the penciled markings on her kitchen wall. The ones labelled Jack, and then Charlotte, and then Cecily. A tiny demarcation to delineate a visual sign of how quickly the years go by; to remind us that time never ceases to march on, even when a mother’s aching heart would will it otherwise.

Good-bye, squeaking doors…
uneven floors…
shower walls that never shine to my satisfaction, no matter how hard I might scrub.

Good-bye…
sing-song cadence of our childrens’ voices as they play with their little friends from down the street.

Good-bye…
majestic oak trees that never seem to lack leaves to drop in our gutters…
neighbors who never seem to lack a kind gesture to brighten our day.

Good-bye, dear friend. 

May the next family blessed enough to call you home find even a fraction of the joy we have within your walls.

12.10.2010

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Comments

  2. Heather says

    I was hard for me to leave our last house too. Your post reminded me of the hiegth marks in the garage ofr each kid. Maybe I should start doing that again.

  4. Dixie Mom says

    I’ve moved so many times in my life but the pain is always still there. Leaving a home with memories is so difficult and you expressed it beautifully.
    The last house I left is still sitting empty…for sale…far away. We may not be able to hold on to it. It breaks my heart.

  5. Laura @ Ms Smartie Pants says

    Kleenex please! I have lived in my house for over 21 years and when I say to people I can’t leave it at the point it is where I got married and brought my babies home they look at me like I am crazy! A house is so much more than a building and you said that perfectly! I don’t know what your situation is but I hope…. and believe from this post you will find peace and joy in your new home too!

  8. Pamela says

    What beautiful prose…It doesn’t matter why you leave, it’s always sad to leave a part of your life behind. I’ve prayed you will have peace and joy as you begin making memories in a new home.