9 September

Spring Woods.

Our Pop-pop's health has been failing him for many years and a few months ago he made the move into a nursing home. This weekend, my parents have had the daunting task of going through their things. Nanny and Pop-pop made this house a home around 1980 (it wasn't the house my Dad grew up in). It was their little country retirement house in the woods in the little town of McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania (which I'm not sure I can even spell right). They filled it with the many things that were important to them, most of all the very many important family, friends and townsfolk (I think they knew everyone) that were treated like royalty around their dinner table. I remember Nanny in the corner of her kitchen, the two trash cans for recyclables, the canning cellar, the ping-pong table, the twin beds and the cot upstairs, the old books and the trunk full of vintage toys. I remember hiking "up the cut" with a really quick dog who has recently passed, filling up the wood box, picking black rasberries and raking leaves. I remember the coffee table (which quickly became a coloring table for all the great grand children), all the handmade furniture, the old rocking chair that my Dad first Sat in, and Trevor did also. I remember the dinners and the breakfasts, the late night card games and the jam sessions, my dad on his trombone and Nanny at the piano. I remember the vintage car wallpaper, the noise the shower made and the carpet in the upstairs bathroom. I remember how the screened in porch was often used as a second refrigerator for many Thanksgiving goodies. It was so much more than a structure, Nanny and Pop-pop put everything into making their home, everything was perfectly cared for and dusted, not because it had to be that way but because they put so much love into everything they did. . I think it was everything they wanted it to be. It was far away from us, but I'm so thankful to my parents for giving me all those wonderful memories of days spent here. It's sad and happy all at the same time. Happy, because I know their example and these memories have been an inspiration to me in my life, with my family, in my home and the way I mother my children. Sad because, it's so humbling to realize that things can not stay the same forever, that certain "paths" will never be walked again and now I have lived more adulthood that childhood. Now, it's time to begin the journey of letting go, always remembering two lives well lived full of happiness and love.