Going home...

It's happened before, and it will happen again. Tomorrow. I'm going to return to the place I call "home" and this time it will be to do things in preparation for putting it on the market this spring.

My teenage years were unlike anyone else I know. With divorced parents, I lived with my dad. We had a friend of his renting a room from us. Eventually his girlfriend/wife moved in with us (a stroke of luck, cuz thanks to her I passed algebra!). After they moved out, it wasn't long until my cousins (elementary aged) moved in with us (their mom died in a flood), and not long after that I graduated from high school. During my senior year of high school I was babysitting for a friend who was a single dad (J) with one son (S). J was the son of D, who was a friend of my dad's. I had known these people since I was 10...in fact, I told J what "scp" meant (I had it written on my hands...'super cootie protection') so they were like family. S was in kindergarten at the time, and they had just moved into a new house that was within walking distance of my school. They drove me home (about 30 miles round-trip) every evening unless J was too tired, and gave me the keys to his car (I didn't get a car 'til the summer after I graduated).

In the spring of 1980, I moved in with them. D lived their too and she also worked full time. My job was to get S to/from school, doctor/dental appointments, and care for him and the house. While he was at school, I went to the local junior college. Sometimes.

Over the years, I moved out of the house, quit the b-sitting gig, visited often, and moved back in until the year I got married and moved out for good. My husband and I moved out of the area, and eventually out of state. Whenever I returned to "home", I always went to J & S's, never to either of my parent's houses. When we moved back to Cali, J was still living there and I cleaned house for him for about a year.

J finally married and moved into a house with his wife. He kept H Ct. as a rental. Fast-forward to two years ago, and S was going to move back "home". We all rallied around and got the place fixed up to S's specifications (and fixed problems that come along with renters). S moved out about a year ago, and once again it has been rented. J e-mailed last week and told me of his plans to clean it up and get it on the market. I volunteered to help. J & S will always be my "family" and H Ct. will always be "home" but soon our family members won't get to be inside those walls saying "remember when..."

It will be nice to be there with J tomorrow. We can talk about what was, wonder about what wasn't, and envision what will be when our dear boy S takes a bride for himself later this year.

You can move forward, or to the side, but you can never go back. Well, unless you've gotta clean the place up!