Thursday, August 21, 2008

Three posts in one day-
(it was the easiest way I could think of to do it)

Today is a sad day for me. I am kindof in mourning. I know it is a silly thing to be sad about, but everytime I think of it I want to cry. As I sit typing this, my Mom is packing up all the stuff in my Grandma and Grandpa's house in Corvallis, Oregon. They haven't lived there for quite awhile. My brother, Eric, has been living there and taking care of the house and yard, but it has still been their house. After today it won't be anymore. My cousin Lisa and her family are moving in tomorrow. It will still be in Grandma and Grandpa's name, but none of their stuff will be there. They have lived there for a very long time. I think they moved into that house when Mom was in junior high school.
Grandma and Grandpa's house is the place where I have always gone to visit them. It is a wonderful place. A place that used to grow Christmas trees. All the trees are giants now and totally unsuitable to be a Christmas tree, but when I was small it was a magical place where I knew Santa could come and feel welcome. Their house is a place where we could tiptoe out into the backyard and see deer eating the apples off the trees. It is a place that has daring squirrels that will throw nuts at you and try to scare you out of their tree. It is a place that has walls of hydrangeas that are taller than I am. It is a place that we took baths in a big metal washtub in the backyard. It is a place that Grandpa built me the greatest swing ever. It is a place where you could find frozen cherries and frozen blueberries in the freezer to snitch. It is the place that I lost my pocketknife when I was about eleven or so. It is the place where I spent most of my birthdays when I was young. It is a place where blackberries grow wild, and if I would go pick a bucket full off the bushes across the street Grandma would make me a blackberry pie. Their kitchen is a place that always had wonderful smells coming from it and if you sit at the kitchen table you could watch the hummingbirds in the garden outside of the window and play a game of panjandrum with Grandma. Of course, I haven't actually had the chance to do any of those things for a very long time, but in my mind I guess I felt like I could . After this weekend I won't be able to anymore. It will be someone else's house, with their furniture and their dishes, and their things. I am sad.

3 comments:

Jolene said...

Michelle,
I totally understand what you are going through. I have been depressed over the whole situation for months now.
It didn't help when I visited Oregon in March because though Grandma and Grandpa's stuff was still in the house, it just wasn't the same without them there. Even the smell of the house was different (except the garage and workshop - that still reminded me of them).
It sucks that we all have to go through this transition, and that our grandparents won't be with us much longer. I try to do what you just did and focus on all the great memories they gave to us.

Love,
Jolene

Mom said...

It made me cry just reading about how wonderful it was, and thinking about my own grandma who lived across the street from us, and about Aunt Sarah's house and all the memories there that are just part of who you are. And especially about my own house, the only one I lived in. Mom and Dad sold it after Tom and I got married, and I remember sitting out in the backyard the night before we left just crying. But then you know how hard a time I have saying "goodbye"!!! Aren't we blessed to have such wonderful memories filled with love?
Love, Mom Price

TheScotticus said...

My favorite memories of Grandma and Grandpa's house is when we went up there as an extended family and stayed at Cape Cod Cottages, and the time when some of us went up there for Christmas. I love the simple, old fashioned Christmas that we spent there, with just a simple "Christmas Tree" that grandpa had cut, which was about 2 feet high.
I've been thinking about that a lot as well, even being out here. I very much cherished being able to go there one last time with Kel before things changed too much, but actually am glad that I haven't been there recently. I have lots of pictures now and remember it the way that I want to remember it. I almost don't want to go back there any more for fear that it might bring me to the reality that it isn't like I remember it. I will still go up there on occasion and go to the coast and things, I'm sure, but I think I would like to leave Grandma and Grandpa's house perfectly preserved in my memory. That's the type of house I want to have, one that everyone is fond of visiting and have such good memories of that they never want anything about it to change. The thing that makes me feel better is to know that I can carry on or emulate traditions that we loved so much that we did when we were there, and make our own fond memories and traditions to carry on that our own children will look forward to and love. Grandma and Grandpa truly seemed to have lived the best lives that most people could hope to have.