You have heard, “if this ole house
could talk!” I have heard a few stories
it could tell and we have a story. Sally
was one of my closest friends back in the 80’s and we took trips together and
she taught me so much I don’t have time to write it all down. But she taught me love for family and
devotion to her husband. She was a lady
with many gifts and this was a photo of the beginning of their life
together. She spoke of the many letters
she cherished and eagerly awaited while he was in the service. She spoke of her loneliness and her
fear. How her son was born and growing
when he first met his father, and the good and bad times of early years. For her one wouldn’t notice the bad because
they were so dim compared to the great light of things. She was a good friend.
In 1982 we bought the home and Eddie and I gutted the
insides and remodeled it together. This
was a time of growing and the cement that glued a marriage together. This was OUR home. We made decisions together, we worked
shoulder to shoulder together, and loved it together. It was our mountain top before some deep
valleys came into our lives.
Soon after we completed the renovation of the house our nest
emptied again. Our son left to begin his
life and moved to Ft. Worth. Another transition.
In this house Robin, our oldest graduated from Panola
College and the lessons of life began. I
will never forget the day we moved her belongings to Tyler where she attended
college. Eddie came back down the side
walk having hauled in the last piece of furniture and he looked as though
someone had hit him in the stomach….Hard.
As this transition became easier we had many a good time and Robin
sweetened our lives by bringing home the left overs of the day at the Yogurt
place where she worked and for the most part with scholarships put herself
through two years of college. We loved
the yogurt. We loved our daughter. She made us proud. She graduated with honors and married the man
she had begged God to send for her and they moved to Venus Texas where she
began teaching history to 6th graders. She loved teaching and she loved those
kids. Another transition.
I best not name people because I will not go to the trouble
to get permission to write down my memories in public. I want some of the children to know their
beginnings that perhaps do not remember.
In 1985 Marcel came into our lives and a little man from
Belgium came to spend six months with us.
This is a complete story of its own but this ole house could tell you
about riding our horse, Eddie teaching him to drive a stick shift pick up
through a narrow gate, working in the flower beds and a first time ever garden
planted and kept with never a weed to show its ugly head all due to
Marcel. He brought joy into our lives as
our first born graduated from college and married. Our
son marries and our first granddaughter came into the world and later by our
second grandson. The house could tell
you the excitement the man brought as he told stories of the life in his
country and was shown Texas from East to West and provided Eddie, Carol and I
the opportunity to go to Europe and see Paris and Carol was allowed to stay and
visit England. Oh this was a glorious
time this ole house could tell about.
Now we were only three.
Carol and Suzie did everything together.
We had hay rides for Halloween, Easter egg hunts, Christmas time
together with the Allums and the Turners and now Suzie and family. Then Suzie’s parents were transferred to
Dallas and Suzie came to live with us for the last year of school so she could
graduate. She lived in this ole house
that soon after she stood in our living room and married.
Eight years passed
from the time we moved into this home and during that time we experienced so
many precious memories.
Carol married and we experienced the total empty nest and I
wish I could say we had a beautiful time in life and all was good but it was
hard. Our children were the biggest part
of our lives. We were lost. That first Christmas alone was a real
killer. But life continued and Carol left
to move to Georgia and later had her first son.
I had never witnessed birth of human or animal. Now was the time. In the army hospital I stood behind a large
plate glass window and watched our grandson come into this world as his father
stood at our daughters head as they did a C section. Had it not been for the window ledge holding
me up I would have fainted. Eddie missed
all this fun because he came later.
Another great transition.
Six months later Desert Storm took our son in law away and
Carol came home. I think he had only
been in Germany a few days when another transition came and he was allowed to
come back home to the funeral of that young teacher in Venus, Texas that left
an emptiness that will never be filled but a joy unspeakable because we know
where she is. Her husband met and
married a young woman and they had four children. He and Robin in their brief five years had
none. When a marriage is a happy one the
partner left behind will never be the same till he finds that happiness again
and we were thankful that Robert found another not to take Robin’s place but
another to live out his life with.
Suzie and Randy got married in this same living room of the
house where Joe and Sally were married.
They were neighbors and knew each other well. Randy had a little girl from a previous
marriage and she was the flower girl. It
was a marvelous day. I believe all four
children were born in the house around the corner from us. Today the little girl that was flower girl
that day married and has two children of her own and they live in another
state. Suzie’s first born Emily was born
in their first home in Longview, but I believe when they moved to the house
around the curve from us and the boys Jacob, Bradley and William were born.
Such a long time ago and now the old house cannot share
anymore memories. The solid 1 x 12 walls
that withstood the test of time are no more.
The laughter of little girls, the sound of little boys running through
her rooms, bride and groom, baby showers, Easter egg hunts, Thanksgiving Dinners, Halloween hay rides, Christmas trees, birthdays, babies being born,
grandpa taking kids on tractor rides, boys running down the long road to
pasture in their go carts, calves being led while pictured as a lamb, standing
next to the three crosses overlooking the pond, friends traveling 200 miles to
visit all are vanished but never forgotten.
