We've lived in our brick rancher for almost 22 years. We moved in during the Fall of 2000, when I was heavily pregnant with Rachael, Emma was a talkative 2 year old, and Jim had a dark head of hair. We had moved from our townhouse in Aurora, CO with the help of family and friends in a Uhaul truck, 6 months earlier. We leased an apartment while we looked for a single family home to buy.
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| July 2000 |
Our house wasn't the house of our dreams with a wrap around porch and turn of the century woodwork, but we immediately loved our brick rancher and began to put our stamp on it. Over the years that stamp got bigger. We painted, and updated light fixtures, removed wall paper, removed bushes, and added planting beds. Home ownership gave us the ability to adapt our space to our growing family. We finished the basement, and I can remember painting the walls blue as I listened to Christmas carols and supporting my pregnant belly in anticipation of Megan's arrival. Before refinishing the wood floors, we tore off the living room's wood paneling revealing the fireplace box. Jim and I built a new mantel and trimmed the fireplace after returning from the beach. I was pregnant with Bridget at the time. There were many bedroom swaps and room painting that happened over the years as our family grew. In 2011 we took the wall out between our kitchen and dining room and redid the kitchen top to bottom. I still love our big kitchen drawers, deep sink and peninsula. The biggest change of all was the addition. We found out we were pregnant with Johanna, and we decided new bedrooms and a better traffic pattern for our main floor would make a big difference. 9 years later the office has come in very handy and the circular floor plan makes hosting so much better. Our house has been the place of many smiles, laughs, and love. Lots and lots of love. These physical changes were only a faint shadow compared to the family that was built and is being built here. Every room has markings and memories of them in it, that make it home. Our home.
It makes me smile. I'm so grateful to have had the ability to make so many memories. I'm aware I might lose some memories as I get older, and I do see myself getting much older in this house. But I believe that the feelings will linger well past the memory, those are written on my heart. I'm also confident that they are written on Jim's and the girls' hearts too. I look forward to experiencing waves of joy with unexpected reminders.
The smell of gardening does that for me. When I weed the planting beds and get a hold of Creeping Charlie, the scent hits me and I let it linger. I am bathed in the love of my Aunt Mickey. It makes me feel content and safe. She spoke of Creeping Charlie with such disdain, that it is ironic to me that I enjoy it so much now. I spent many many weekends of my childhood at Aunt Mickey's tiny bungalow on Longview Drive, just around the bend from my grandparent's house. She was and is one of my favorite people. She had so many skills and was so put together. Proper in diction and manners, and dress. She was a gifted and generous seamstress. She was competent and independent, and could be stern and sometimes scary. She also had a big laugh and loved her family; her love is written on my heart. She was an unmarried woman, successful, modest, fun, and so generous. She suffered a stroke, when I was a young teen and she became dependent on that family she loved so well. We weren't always the best at repaying her for everything, but having the chance to help her get ready in the mornings when she lived with us was a blessing, and witnessing her frustration which she sometimes raged at briefly but most often laughed at her situation, limitation or struggle, was a gift. She was the epitome of grace. Getting a speeding ticket with her stifling laughter next to me in the car after I picked her up from the Senior Center is still an experience I smile over. Every generation needs an Aunt Mickey.
A few of our girls have mentioned that they don't want to have children, and part of me feels sad because I know what an absolute blessing children have been in my life, and I want that for them. Then I think of my Great Aunt Mickey and the gift of attention she gave to me, that safety net she was to many, and what a great life she lived. I think of the series of unmarried Great Aunts up and down our genealogy and I am content that each of my girls will take part in the writing on hearts, whether or not they have children, and hopefully some day the scent of some ordinary thing will remind them of home and the love it bears.
