We went back to one of those special places with you last week. It was a place that reminded me of growing up. Of spending summers as a kid with my brother, where we got to be real brothers. Getting admonished for "horse play" in the house. Where we used to throw lawn darts up in the air and run around like idiots trying to avoid getting hit by them. The place where I learned what work really was...and not because it was hard work, but because I saw the passion that my grandfather had for his land, the perfection in everything that he did.
It was a place where you fell under grandma and grandpas rules, where you got to eat cereal with honey, from a honey pot on the table with a cool little honeycomb. The place where you stayed up late watching the Last Shogun because it was on TV and your grandparents watched that sort of thing...and you loved it. A place where magic happened not because IT was magical, but because the love, the peacefulness, the beauty of the land around it was magical.
It was the place where you played games with your grandparents friends and had fun, even when you were a teenager who wouldn't be caught dead letting your mom drop you off at the movies let alone playing games with your grandparents and their friends. Where you learned how to play lawn croquet and still, to this very day, can picture you and your brother stepping on the balls and knocking them out of the way, wondering how you had never heard about this game before!
You got to experience this place. Granted it was different than the way I had experienced it, but it was still awesome to see you there.
You got to pick corn out of the garden and pick fresh apples off the tree. And then walk around eating it for the next hour!
You got to ride around on the riding lawn mower...which I might add, we never had in our day!
You raised the American flag, just like so many of the Lucas grand and great grand kids have.
Unfortunately you didn't get to experience great grandpa singing Reveille to wake you up, like he used to do to us...though you didn't need it waking up at 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM in the morning!
It was a trip that you will never remember but I will and your great grandparents will. It was something that I wanted to do with you since you were born and will never be able to do it again.
They are selling the magical place. Moving on to something smaller, something more manageable. It is the right thing to do, they have worked hard to maintain it and its now time for them to relax. It's sad, but it is O.K. because I know that even though the house might be gone...the magic it brought to me, to our family, and now to you, will always be there. It will be in our hearts and in our minds. It has been passed on to you through experiences you will never remember but through love that you will always know.
This might differ than some of your other monthly updates but it's something I thought you should know about. Another little piece of your mother and I that has been passed on to you. Little bits of our family history, our family love that we may forget to tell you someday but that you should know about.
You can see all our pictures by clicking here
1 comment:
This post made me so emotional that I had to leave and then come back to comment.
What a very special place, indeed. You described it so perfectly that I could picture all the action that took place over the years.
It's a wonderful thing that you got to share that with your son. A gift, really.
Post a Comment