Today my Grandparents house of most of my life burned to the ground. It was a lovely historic two story in my hometown, up on a hill with a tree lined drive. They sold it to my dad 2-3 years ago when they decided to move into a one story home since they were both 80. My dad and stepmom had done some updates and had renters in the home and planned to continue with renters until they're ready to retire in 2-3 more years.
My cousins and I used to swing on the front porch swing, play pool in the upstairs game room, sneak out on the front deck and up the roof swinging over to the side deck in and racing down the outside stairs in great games of chase. My Grandmomma and Granddaddy had great parties for family and driends: lots of food, drinks, cocktail hours, full dinners, pot lucks, poker parties, 4th of July brunches, New Years Eve parties, New Years day late brunches, bridal showers, baby showers, post wedding reception house parties, pizza parties, fondue parties, taffy pulls. My Grandmom baked a million cookies in that house and a million of her county wide famous Angel food cakes. They had millions of boy scout and girl scout meetings, Sunday school parties, church choir parties (we're Methodists so these were GOOD parties), bday parties, Saturday family breakfasts with goodness knows how many pancakes made, Sunday lunches and so many more events big and small. All of us grandkids were in and out of that house with friends and there was always candy and tons of flavors of bubblegum that your parents would have never bought you. There was a Christmas tree decorated in EVERY room and on the porches.
Even though no one in our family was living in the house, we knew it was still in our family and that my Dad and stepmom would be retiring there and we had plans for more great parties in that house.
One of my best friends rented the house for a few months and she said you could feel that it was a happy home-and it was.
I'm thankful that the renters weren't home when the fire happened and that they are safe, I'm sad that they lost their pets and their belongings. We're not sure if they had renters insurance but my family is working on helping them out as is the Salvation Army, local Red Cross and the community-that's the good thing about a small town, as soon as word got out of the fire, folks were offering to help.
I think my Dad and stepmom will build a new house on that tree lined hill in the future and I'm sure we'll make lots of new memories there but for now, I'm just a little sad.
My cousins and I used to swing on the front porch swing, play pool in the upstairs game room, sneak out on the front deck and up the roof swinging over to the side deck in and racing down the outside stairs in great games of chase. My Grandmomma and Granddaddy had great parties for family and driends: lots of food, drinks, cocktail hours, full dinners, pot lucks, poker parties, 4th of July brunches, New Years Eve parties, New Years day late brunches, bridal showers, baby showers, post wedding reception house parties, pizza parties, fondue parties, taffy pulls. My Grandmom baked a million cookies in that house and a million of her county wide famous Angel food cakes. They had millions of boy scout and girl scout meetings, Sunday school parties, church choir parties (we're Methodists so these were GOOD parties), bday parties, Saturday family breakfasts with goodness knows how many pancakes made, Sunday lunches and so many more events big and small. All of us grandkids were in and out of that house with friends and there was always candy and tons of flavors of bubblegum that your parents would have never bought you. There was a Christmas tree decorated in EVERY room and on the porches.
Even though no one in our family was living in the house, we knew it was still in our family and that my Dad and stepmom would be retiring there and we had plans for more great parties in that house.
One of my best friends rented the house for a few months and she said you could feel that it was a happy home-and it was.
I'm thankful that the renters weren't home when the fire happened and that they are safe, I'm sad that they lost their pets and their belongings. We're not sure if they had renters insurance but my family is working on helping them out as is the Salvation Army, local Red Cross and the community-that's the good thing about a small town, as soon as word got out of the fire, folks were offering to help.
I think my Dad and stepmom will build a new house on that tree lined hill in the future and I'm sure we'll make lots of new memories there but for now, I'm just a little sad.
