Oh-Bla-Di

Our annual trip to Kansas is, of course, an opportunity to visit family, but it has also served as an opportunity to make a pilgrimage of sorts.  Each Memorial Day, as my family gathers to celebrate our country and honor the family we’ve lost, Matt & I also take a trip “up the road” to visit the Yellow House.  In the past couple of years, that’s been a kind of difficult thing to do.  The house was falling into disrepair and we no longer had access to it the way we had in the past.  If those years were difficult, this year was closure.

Thanks to some wonderful new owners, the Yellow House is once again being loved by a family.

See that, right there?  That’s this house after some love and that’s my family walking in the front door.  When I saw them all walking up to the front porch, I hollered at Matt to get a picture.  I wanted to be able to remember what that looked like.  We all went inside -admiring changes, updates and reliving old times – and tromped around through the first floor and back out through the back door.

And then, this happened.

That’s my family walking up the outside stairs to check out the upstairs of the house.  We haven’t been up those stairs in years.  If it’s possible, this house is making up for some lost time and may be even better than when it was last lived in.

This photo is a treasure.  Great-great nieces and nephews and great-great-great grandkids of the people who lived here.  All piled up on a too-small couch and told to smile for a picture.  Priceless.

As hard as it’s been to visit this house in the last few years, this time I left it in peace.  It’s not so sad to leave when it’s full of life and love.  It’s ok to pass it to someone else.  It’s ok for it to change.  I think I just needed a chance to really say goodbye – in a way that was full of family and talk and happiness.  Closure.