Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Granny's

 
As I've mentioned before, our sweet feisty Granny
moved into a nursing home, to meet her needs that come with
worsening symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
 
It's been a bumpy road, there has been good days and bad.
Especially difficult for my Mom, and her siblings.
As if that wasn't hard enough, there was still her house to take care of.
 
This house is my favorite place on earth.
It's my sister's favorite place on earth.
Probably safe to say it's one of my brother's favorite places on earth.
This gorgeous home, tucked away in a beautiful neighborhood in Leitchfield, Kentucky
has held so many of my most precious childhood memories.
 
Including my siblings, we have all spent so many summer, fall, winter and spring days here visiting.
Although it's forever summer at Granny's in my mind.
 
The last few months, Mom and Dad have been working very hard,
(along with a family friend that also helped clean Granny's house)
to start the long process of cleaning out and organizing everything that was left
after Granny's move to the nursing home.
Amy and I made a few quick trips to bring furniture home that meant something to us,
along with odds and ends that we wanted to fill our homes with.
Things to remind us of Granny, and her home that we cherished so much.
 
Meanwhile, between cleaning, and distributing pieces of furniture between the family,
the house was on the market.
Turns out, a neighbor behind Granny's house (past the woods)
and a family member of one of Granny's long time neighbors...
who happens to be in construction, and wants to remodel... 
and who happened to always love Granny's house...
and who happens to want to keep Granny's little dog Fidgit...
bought the house.
 
A true God send.
A literal answer to prayers.
We all couldn't believe how that worked out so well.
How much easier it was to hand the house over to someone
who will take such good care of it, and love it as much as we do.
Apparently even with the open invitation for us to visit,
"any time we wanted."
 
That was one of the things that hurt the most,
knowing that we might not ever be able to step foot back in to the house.
To have those memories of playing on the stairs,
playing by the creek,
playing baseball in the front yard,
staying up way too late, and drinking too many beers with our cousins,
come flooding back to us.
We will though, with family still in Leitchfield, and an open invitation,
it will be feasible to still visit every once and a while,
and for that I am so very thankful.
 
 
So one last time.
One final visit before the keys were handed over.
The little boys and I packed up, picked up my niece Avery,
and headed down to spend a couple of days and one last night with Mom & Dad
in the almost empty house.
 
I needed to soak up every ounce of this house, & everything that I love about it.
 
The swing inside the open garage.
 

 
The back deck.
 


The endless gravel driveway.
 

 



The barn.
 

  
How the sprinkler always finds the backyard in the summer.
 
 
 
Baseball in the front yard.
 
 



 An abundance of memories, spent with family.
That I know we will all remember, and cherish for as long as we live.
Thankful for a few new ones made on our last visit.
 




I have to admit, I had a melt down while cleaning up the toys left in the front yard,
the day we were leaving.
I just can't believe that this huge part of our lives has come to an end.
Can't believe it came time for our beautiful Granny to need to be in a nursing home.
Can't believe her beloved house, that she and all of us love so much
will be handed off to the next family to enjoy it.
Just can't believe it is that time.
That's how life goes though,
all things must come to an end.
 
We will miss it, so much.



 


1 comment:

  1. Beautiful post! Sorry for the loss of the home but thankful that you have such sweet and precious memories. My family did this very same thing several years ago and I treasure everything I own that was my Grandmothers and think of her often because I was fortunate enough to end up with those items in my home. Glad that someone you know has purchased it and therefore you'll be able to take some future strolls down memory lane.

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