Life Flashed before My Eyes...

[meow]

The House Says Goodbye
"My life flashed before my eyes..."
I have heard that expression my entire life, as have we all, but never had experienced anything like it, despite a few brushes with danger (rattlesnake bite) and an emergency appendectomy. I always figured I just wasn't quite close enough to death. I found out on Sunday, you don't have to be close to death to experience this.
We have a buyer for our house, the one we moved out of last June.  Several contracts have fallen through in these past 8 months, but it looks like this one is going to close this week. So, on Sunday we went to our home of 19 years, as we do every week, but this time we had remove the "show" furniture--a bed, a loveseat--plus garden hoses and a few silk plants.
I walked upstairs for one last check, and as I stepped into each room, I was literally assaulted by flashes of memory. I was not thinking about anything in particular, but suddenly these "photos" began superimposing themselves on the empty rooms, like a slide show, and all I could do was watch them flip by...
I saw our dear friend Joe, long gone now, struggling up the stairs with the sofa bed, the day we moved in.
The top of the stairs where young Adam (now 28) crouched behind the bars long after bedtime, watching The Simpsons, thinking we didn't know he was there.
I walked into Kelly's ( now 20) former room, and there was his crib, his changing table, his crazy mobile.
I saw the chaos of clothes, books, papers and cats in Adam?s room at age 12, Metallica blasting. The bottom of the stairs where during a loud argument I pushed Mr Meow out of my way as I walked out the front door, fuming, and how he burst out laughing at me. The front porch had dozens of Halloween pumpkins, and the doorway filled with strangers who, one after another, became loving friends.
I saw the housewarming party where 150 people showed up, wall to wall food and drink, the fight that broke out on the patio.  The patio where we sat up late on late summer nights, making plans. I saw the giant red X  Mr Meow marked on the broken board they used on the stairs that needed to be replaced before the carpet was installed...which of course they didn't, and we had to rip up the carpet to fix it.
I looked out the kitchen window, and suddenly there's no patio cover yet, just an oval track created with cinderblocks for the 2 year-old to zoom around on like a fiend; the huge scarlet oak once again a mere 2-inch wide stick out in the middle of the reeking, bermuda-seeded manure...
The closet where flying ants attacked and bit holes in all my clothes, necessitating a midnight evacuation of the clothes to the patio, and a beating of the clothes with brooms?while Mr Meow's were untouched... and there's the same closet full of water as the water heater fell apart in the garage.
Then I was in the window seat, looking out at the bushes that used to be outside there, covered in Christmas lights and snow... the year that the 40ft Mondell pine that's out there now, was our Christmas tree in a pot.
Pictures flying at me like a game of 52-Pick-Up. I couldn?t have stopped them if I tried.
I had no idea that "My life flashed before my eyes" was so literal, and so raw.
I know we'll be back tomorrow, to get those cinderblocks that once served as the edge of a toddler's racetrack, then as a 3ft wall to keep everyone off the new, fragile grass, then finally as a 6ft wall to block the afternoon sun and the view of the neighbors.
But my heart and my house have said goodbye.

[Joe S.]

I hope that you get a good offer for it. Keep your memories fresh.

[meow]

Closed yesterday. For a little less than we wanted, but that's OK. The buyers are refugees from the war in Mexico.

[A66eyroad]

Meow, that was a great post! Thanks for sharing!

May you have many, many more years of memories in your new home!

[meow]

The" new "one is the house my husband grew up in!

[irish]

meow, ARe you the gal that moved across the street from this house???If so, I loved hearing about that little event.

I also loved this article that you wrote on remembering your house. It is hard to leave, but once out the door and on to another segment of our lives we manage to endure. Good luck and glad the house sold. Oh my, the people you sold it to must have been through some terrible experiences. IRish

[Patze]

Hi Meow,

Aaawwwwww, I know what you mean about the memories a house can hold.  I've lived around this great country and I can recall the wonderful memories in each and everyone of those homes.  It's sad to have to move, but know this, there will be a new family in there now making wonderful memories for their children, and the circle of life continues. 


Patze

[slccom]

What a beautiful essay. You should submit it to a magazine, maybe Grit. Sharon

[harrigan]

I'm sitting here marking work and wishing my Y10s could write as beautifully and imaginatively as you have.  You made your history come alive for me and I was there with you, sharing the joys and sorrows.  May your new home bring you as many if not more memories to treasure  xx Ailsa

[meow]

meow, ARe you the gal that moved across the street from this house???If so, I loved hearing about that little event.

I also loved this article that you wrote on remembering your house. It is hard to leave, but once out the door and on to another segment of our lives we manage to endure. Good luck and glad the house sold. Oh my, the people you sold it to must have been through some terrible experiences. IRish

Yep, we moved our in-laws out of their house to a smaller one across the street a year ago, then moved into their old one last summer.

Glad you liked my memories

[meow]

What a beautiful essay. You should submit it to a magazine, maybe Grit. Sharon

Really? Maybe I will    thanks !

[Patze]

It is very good Meow!   


Patze