Over 500 of the nearly 1,000 blog posts that I have made on this site have come from right here in my home along 14th Street. This old house is where "The View From a Different Window" was born, partially because I love to write but more importantly because I need to write. For whatever the reason ended up being, most generally about this time each day (the 4 a.m. hour) you could find me sitting at the dining room table and pounding away on the computer keyboard.
And I didn't just write a little bit.
I wrote a lot!
This morning's blog post is a bit different. This old house is barren of furniture, empty and silent inside. Instead of sitting on the wooden chair that had its back up against the big south windows, I find myself sitting on the floor with my back propped up against the west wall. It's not such a bad setup for now but when it comes time to get my nearly 60-year old body up from its sitting position I may need a hand. Good thing for me that Mike is sleeping on an air mattress that is not too far away.
Mike and I came home to south-central Kansas the day before yesterday in order to get the house ready for sale and on the market. It was a decision that sooner or later I knew I might be making. I just didn't realize it would be made this weekend. Yet as is the case in all of my life's doings, I am well aware of the fact that there are things that I have little control over. Sometimes it's just best to be still and listen to the message that the good Lord sends us. The message that I believe I received was this.
"Now is the time to sell it. You have taken care of it long enough. It is ok to let it go."
Later on this month, we will do just that as we put it up on the market and pray for a buyer to come along who really wants to have it.
This house is filled with memories and every single one of them are wonderful ones. Really, if I had to stop and think of a bad one, I could not. Originally the house belonged to my folks. They bought it and moved in on October 2, 1982 which also happened to be my oldest son's 2nd birthday. My father was dying of lung cancer and it was his final wish to see that my mom could have a place to live in town so that when he was gone there would be no need for her to worry. All of us kids would be close by and could help her any time that she needed us to. My father only lived here two months and when he died on the 11th of December, my mother began her life here alone. For over 20 years she made this house her home and the memories of those times are forever written and etched deeply into my heart. When I say that they are all very happy and loving ones, I mean it. They truly were.
I bought this home in 2005 and it was here that I made my way as a newly divorced woman. It was a sad time for me but I made it regardless. This home was my sanctuary and a place that provided a lot of peace and respite from the times that I was going through. I worked really hard here to turn it into a place that I could call my own. Once I brought my mom here after I had purchased it. I wanted her to see it and to know that the house was going to be ok. I picked her up at the nursing home she was living in and we took the short drive to midtown. It was hard for her to get up the front steps and even harder for her to walk through the rooms of the house. I didn't know what she would say but as we were getting ready to go, she told me something.
"I'm so happy that you got this place and that you will take care of it. I don't want to come back in again. It belongs to you now and that is the way it should be."
When I moved away from Hutchinson in 2013, it was to begin a new life with Mike in the mountains of southwestern Colorado. I wasn't ready to let the old house go two years ago. Today as I sit here on the floor and type these words to you, I know one thing for sure.
Now I am.
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