To whoever is reading this: A house is never just a house.
It is unreal to me that it is mere weeks away from the one year of my passing of my dad. In a few weeks it will have been a year since my last family dinner. My birthday is in 5 days which marks the last time I went to the movies with him. Star Trek in Imax. I'm almost 30 and still Daddy's Littl Girl. Well this year things are different.
The house my parents built after I finished highschool sits nearly empty. The fridge emptied, boxes packed. Sold sign on its way up. Just after dad passed we soon realized my mom would be moving. I knew this would happen, it didn't make it any easier though. All those times I joked with mom and dad (and my mom can confirm) I said, 'I can't wait till you guys are in a nursing home. We are going to make so much money off selling it! It's not like I have ties to this place.' Well now selling and that reality is here and I don't really have room for that joke anymore.
Like I said, a house is never just a house. That house isn't just a house. That house is a foundation in which our family has grown for the last 11 years. Those walls were designed by my parents. Inside those walls were many Christmases and family dinners. Those walls surrounded me as I woke on my wedding day. They held us in when my children were born and snuggled by Nanny & Granddad. Those walls held my daughter's first sleepover, her first food, her first time sledding. A house that I apparently do have ties to.
And yet after months of viewing after viewing and the weak Nova Scotia real estate market, months after a fallen deal and just hoping it would sell, we're here. With no emotional relief in sight. As mom finally starts a new chapter in her life that we all need, I can't help but think of the last episode of Friends. That final walkthrough of the empty apartment and how I felt attached to a home I didn't even experience. Well just when I thought I didn't experience house I barely lived in, I definitely did.
As sad as I know it will be when I do my 'final walkthrough', I need to remember that a house isn't just a house. This house provided me shelter over the years just as it should, but I won't sit here and remember how warm the thermostat was, or how the sun shined through the front window. I'm going to remember all the things that house allowed me to experience within its walls.
I will not forget, but I will move on as time passes. I will sit down one of these days at 'Nanny's new house'. Take a look around and smile with anticipation of what these new walls will allow us to experience, because a house IS just a house, until you experience it.
-Natalie
"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you will look back and realize they were big things." - Robert Brault
It is unreal to me that it is mere weeks away from the one year of my passing of my dad. In a few weeks it will have been a year since my last family dinner. My birthday is in 5 days which marks the last time I went to the movies with him. Star Trek in Imax. I'm almost 30 and still Daddy's Littl Girl. Well this year things are different.
The house my parents built after I finished highschool sits nearly empty. The fridge emptied, boxes packed. Sold sign on its way up. Just after dad passed we soon realized my mom would be moving. I knew this would happen, it didn't make it any easier though. All those times I joked with mom and dad (and my mom can confirm) I said, 'I can't wait till you guys are in a nursing home. We are going to make so much money off selling it! It's not like I have ties to this place.' Well now selling and that reality is here and I don't really have room for that joke anymore.
Like I said, a house is never just a house. That house isn't just a house. That house is a foundation in which our family has grown for the last 11 years. Those walls were designed by my parents. Inside those walls were many Christmases and family dinners. Those walls surrounded me as I woke on my wedding day. They held us in when my children were born and snuggled by Nanny & Granddad. Those walls held my daughter's first sleepover, her first food, her first time sledding. A house that I apparently do have ties to.
And yet after months of viewing after viewing and the weak Nova Scotia real estate market, months after a fallen deal and just hoping it would sell, we're here. With no emotional relief in sight. As mom finally starts a new chapter in her life that we all need, I can't help but think of the last episode of Friends. That final walkthrough of the empty apartment and how I felt attached to a home I didn't even experience. Well just when I thought I didn't experience house I barely lived in, I definitely did.
As sad as I know it will be when I do my 'final walkthrough', I need to remember that a house isn't just a house. This house provided me shelter over the years just as it should, but I won't sit here and remember how warm the thermostat was, or how the sun shined through the front window. I'm going to remember all the things that house allowed me to experience within its walls.
I will not forget, but I will move on as time passes. I will sit down one of these days at 'Nanny's new house'. Take a look around and smile with anticipation of what these new walls will allow us to experience, because a house IS just a house, until you experience it.
-Natalie
"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you will look back and realize they were big things." - Robert Brault