#sol25 Home For Sale

My friend's home is for sale.  People are slipping off their shoes and fingering her kitchen counter where not so long ago she stood happily serving quiche and tempura shrimp while making sure glasses were kept full. Strangers are squatting in her sunny room, these days, where we shared unimaginable challenges, unbelievable betrayals, and life-altering losses. My friend no longer sleeps in her oversized bedroom with the king-sized bed and enormous television screen.

Someone is going up and down the stairs counting bathrooms and imagining their family in her space, the one her family once filled with love and acceptance. There are people imagining the miracle of an indoor pool on a snowy day and wondering if a pool table would fit in the basement. My friend is sad, even though some memories are fading.

The physical structure of a home provides a foundation for any family during the long and challenging days of days of working, raising a family and living full lives. Within any family, there will be losses, separations, and disappointments and there maybe many "moves" to "new-to-them homes". Most of those changes will be exciting, even if mixed with sadness.   

However, the chapter of life where all the wallpaper, crystal and Lenox is no longer needed comes for all of us who are "lucky" enough to live long enough. There is no way around it; this chapter is wrapped in sadness and measured in memories. 

There will be a new family, but that home already has a foundation of memories.