Death of a House

This is not an accident; no physical harm came to anyone. This happened yesterday, it was a planned burn. In those ashes are the memories of a family that touched every corner of the house that was. For me, this was the house where I spent a week or two every summer with my second cousin Paula. Every Christmas day with my parents and my great grandpa, grandpa and my mom's aunt and uncle and family. All the memories are still there like it was yesterday but now the house is gone, no more hearing the laughter or smelling the smells that my aunt Ruth made with tender love, the cabinets for the kitchen and dining room that were made by hand by my uncle Gordon are in those ashes, the fingerprints on that wood still belonged to the people that loved in that house. The purple bedroom, the attic door the narrow staircase to the two rooms upstairs that many hours were spent with me and my cousin, the living room where family pictures were taken, so many in those pictures are gone now. I can hear American Band Stand on the TV with the aluminum foil on the rabbit ears, getting ready to go to the little church in Badger for this or that. The crickets, the basement, the kitchen was the heart of the house, so many memories flooded back into my thoughts that I had not thought of in years. The burn and the knowledge of it brought them all back.

...have you ever been going down a flight of stairs and felt like you were missing the next step as if it is not there and panic just a little bit where your heart gets an imaginary push to the back of your chest... going to sleep knowing that this home, one of the icons in my childhood is gone, there are not many of those icons left, and it hits like many members of my family just died again. So many good memories there. I know one can't go back in time and even if we visit it, the door to the past is not open to us. The part that stings a bit more is the fact that there will be no new memories there, the door is really gone. The changes to this place have an impact on me, I cannot imagine how my cousins Sue and Paula feel and the emotions are similar to another death in the family. Closure... does not always give a good feeling. It is however an emotional one. Maybe, just maybe now that it is gone from this earth, it can be in another place with everyone who lived and loved there, still sitting at the table. A place for them to gather together and wait for us to join them. Goodbye old house...I will see you in my dreams.