The past few months have been bittersweet as my Grandmother prepared to move out of her house and into a retirement community. For me, 825 Green Lane is the only house I have been visiting my entire life. Growing up, we would come from wherever we might have been living at that particular time and as soon as you walked in, the place just felt like a second home. It’s also the last place I saw my Grandfather the way I remember him.
When we were little, we would spend hours swinging on the tire swing that hung from the huge tree in the backyard, begging a parent, aunt or uncle to push us higher or spin us faster. Sometimes, someone would set up croquet and we would all run around playing. It was the perfect yard for playing soccer, picking vegetables in Grandma’s garden and catching fireflies.
Inside, the entire family would get together for Thanksgiving and everyone would make a huge circle around the kitchen and say a prayer before dinner. You could always count on Grandma to sit down and play Dominoes, Scrabble, Rummikub, or cards around the kitchen table. In the living room, my sisters and I spent hours watching our favorite movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers….I’m sure today the three of us could probably recite the words to most of the songs. The baby grand piano always sat in the corner, waiting for someone to sit and play hymns or Christmas carols. Upstairs, the little plaid room had two matching twin beds for my sister, Sally and me.
When we were little, we would spend hours swinging on the tire swing that hung from the huge tree in the backyard, begging a parent, aunt or uncle to push us higher or spin us faster. Sometimes, someone would set up croquet and we would all run around playing. It was the perfect yard for playing soccer, picking vegetables in Grandma’s garden and catching fireflies.
Inside, the entire family would get together for Thanksgiving and everyone would make a huge circle around the kitchen and say a prayer before dinner. You could always count on Grandma to sit down and play Dominoes, Scrabble, Rummikub, or cards around the kitchen table. In the living room, my sisters and I spent hours watching our favorite movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers….I’m sure today the three of us could probably recite the words to most of the songs. The baby grand piano always sat in the corner, waiting for someone to sit and play hymns or Christmas carols. Upstairs, the little plaid room had two matching twin beds for my sister, Sally and me.
When I left the house on Saturday for the last time, I had so many mixed emotions, but I am really happy that Grandma is going to be living in such a nice place with so many opportunities to do things and meet new people. I know that 825 Green Lane is just a house, it’s the people that were inside of it and the memories that were made there that made it so special.
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