Getting Ready to Go

Our first order of business while we're in Ohio is to visit my grandparents. They are selling their house so this will be the last time that I get to see it. I am most unbelievably sad about this. Their house has been the one constant in my life. My grandpa and my uncles built that house. They've lived in it since before I was born. This house represents summers spent swimming with my cousins, Christmases spent camping out on the living room floor with all my cousins, walks in the woods behind their house, walks to the bridge with my great grandpa, just so many memories. This house was a happy safe haven when I was a little girl.

There is a folding door that goes from the den to the hallway that every grandkid has gotten their fingers smashed in at least once, lol. When I was teeny, tiny, I locked myself in my grandparents' bathroom while I was playing in my grandma's makeup, heheh. My uncle had to take the doorknob off cuz I wouldn't let anyone in while I was trying to clean up my mess. My cousins, sister, and I had this kinda traditional game we'd play during the holidays that we aptly name The Wall Game. Basically, it was a game of tag where the opposite living room walls were "base" and you had to run safely between the walls while the cousin that was "it" tried to tag you. My grandma was in a constant tizzy over the hand prints us dirty kids would leave on her white walls. One year, my 6+ foot tall uncle decided to join in and his clumsiness led to a mirror getting knocked off the wall and broken.

I can remember many nights sleeping in the middle bedroom that used to be my great grandpa's before he passed away. Their house is in the country so the silence is very complete at night with the only sounds being from crickets in the summer and the wind in the winter. It was quite different than my childhood bedroom in my house that was on one of the busiest streets in the town where I was born. It was peaceful.

There were also nights that I would sleep in my grandparents' bed with my grandma because my grandpa was working a 24 hour shift at the fire house. In the mornings, I would sit and go through my grandma's jewelry boxes trying on her rings and picking out what I would have liked to have had for myself.

And now that I'm grown with my own kids, I enjoy memories of my grandpa taking my daughters for rides on his lawnmower. Memories of them swinging with my dad in the swing in the backyard. Walking with my kids out to the pond so we could watch the frogs jump in and bluegill swim around the cattails.

Life goes on and change happens but this will take some getting used to for me. Maybe some Xanacs and therapy will be in order, heheh. I'm sad but I'll get over it. I'm really looking forward to seeing my grandparents and their house once more time before they move. It's been a few years since we've been out to visit. Our trips to Ohio don't often coincide with them being in Ohio at the same time since they enjoy travelling and spend their winters in Texas. It'll be a treat if not a bittersweet one.