Saturday, March 14, 2009

A God Thing

This is Sharon. She goes to my church and her husband Joe hands me my bulletin and shakes my hand most Sunday mornings. Sharon always has a cheerful "Good Morning, Bren" for me and I usually get at least one hug from her. I know them both pretty well, however, I had never known their last name. In doing the library project, I kept running across the name "Sharon K*******" in books I was cataloging. It sounded SO familiar. I asked my mom in passing one day, "Do we know a Sharon K*******?" She said, "Oh yes. They bought our house on 9th Street from us back in 72."Now anyone who reads here regularly knows about this house. I talk about it every so often. It is where my all time favorite picture of me and my sister was taken....
That was taken on the enclosed front porch, which has the same flooring, by the way. I lived there from 4-12 years of age, and all my best childhood memories are in that house.
Anyhow, I asked a friend from church if Sharon K******* attended and low and behold it was MY Sharon. She and Joe STILL live in the house and send my parents a Christmas card every year. So for 9 months I have been greeted by and hugged on by the very people who live in my childhood home!!! We were promptly invited to a luncheon and yesterday my sister, mother and I went for a wonderful egg casserole and a visit down memory lane. It was SO fun!!!!
All the original wood work is there, including the carving I did of my sister's name...I don't come out looking good in that story so we will leave it alone ;) Better than the trip down memory lane, was my old neighbor Lou.
Lou is now 98 years old. She is complete in all her faculties and walks quite well. She uses a small tripod walker on wheels because she says her knees are bad, but she basically picks it up and carries it over any obstacle. I was tickled to get to have lunch with her. She was a huge part of my childhood. I thought she was so old back then, but she was only 56 when we moved in!! Her husband Russ was like a grandpa to me. He sold "dew worms" from a big dirt filled sink in their basement to fishermen. He has been gone for 12 years now. Lou still lives in the same house next door and Sharon and Joe care for her if she needs anything. She still goes down to her basement and works in her sewing room. Lou taught me to take my first sewing stitch by using a big tin of buttons. My sister and I use to play for hours with those buttons on Lou's living room floor while she sewed wedding gowns and other dresses she was commissioned to make. Yesterday we were able to go through that same tin of buttons.
We each pulled a handful of buttons chosen carefully, even though we were told to take all we wanted.See those 3 big ones? Those were the ones I remember learning to sew on. Lou makes quilts too. She pieces them on the machine and then ties them. She has 25 tops in her basement and has asked me to come another day and go through them with her. Here is one on the spare bed at Sharon's house that Lou made.
That was my old bedroom, which was much smaller than I remembered!
The rest of the house was exactly as I remembered, with the exception of the remodeled kitchen and bathroom. Still the kitchen held that same "feel" to it and I would have recognized it anywhere.
After our wonderful visit, I walked Lou home. She had mentioned a small tree on her side yard between our houses, and how when I was 6 or 7, I had jumped over the newly planted tree and had broke the entire top off of it. While walking her home, she pointed out that tree to me. It has to be 60 feet tall!!!! (I am not good at estimating height, but it was VERY tall)You can see the base of it up against the fence...the fence was not there when I was a kid. She says my jumping over it made it grow crooked and said she thinks of us when she looks at that crooked tree! Yeesh.
I am sorry for the terrible picture here of Lou, but she just wanted to chatter through the pics so it was difficult to get a good one.
As I left, I noticed the narrow sidewalk leading from the back door to the garage. It did not seem near as long as it did when I was a child. It seemed to go on for a mile. I skipped up and down that same sidewalk pretty much every day of those 7+ years. It was not a walking sidewalk...it demanded to be skipped down.
The massive cherry tree that was just to the right of the sidewalk is gone now. It split down the middle several years ago, but I have such wonderful memories of climbing that big ol tree. Sharon said her 2 children had the same wonderful time in the cherry tree. Plus it produced awesome cherries!!
Now was that a God thing or what??!! Call it fate or coincidence if you want, but I see God's Hand all over that! Next time I will have Lou and Sharon to my house for a luncheon.
The day was not over. We left there and headed out for some shopping. I found this wonderful miniature stool that has a storage space in it at an antique shop. I just love it. It will hold my basted hexagons nicely!

My mom's doctors appointment went well. She is most likely having issues caused by another medication. It is being monitored and maybe she will have to change meds. In the meantime, continue to pray for her. I had such fun with my mom and sister and think I laughed more yesterday than I had in a month combined!! My sister is quite the cut up.

Even waiting to get labs done, she was playing tricks and making me giggle.

Around 4:00 my sister needed to head back to the big city so my mom and I dropped her at her car and headed to a salon. I got all my hair cut off!!! It was so over processed and just needed to go. It is very short, but I am ok with it. I did not get home til 6:30, so had been gone for 9 hours. What a fun day!!
Today is Kyle's birthday. I will make him a spice cake (his favorite) and we will celebrate with a late lunch, early dinner because I have bunco tonight. Here is a picture of Kyle around 10 months old. He is 23 today!!! He let me know this morning he is getting old. I think if I have this right, he is the same age as my mother was when they bought that house on 9th street and raised their family there. I guess he is getting old!!

Thanks for sharing my "God thing" with me!!!
Have a blessed and productive weekend!
"The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him."
Lamentations 3:25

19 comments:

Andrea Cherie said...

What a neat adventure! My cousin & I once went & knocked on the front door of my childhood home- they let us right in to have a look-see! And yes, all those things that seemed so HUGE as a small child weren't!

Happy 23rd Birthday, Kyle!!

Anonymous said...

sounds like a wonderful walk down memorylsne, and a chance to spend some time with your sister too. Your hair looks great!

Holee said...

This was a wonderful day! I also enjoyed Charlotte's night out.

Although your hair looks nice, I cut mine last summer and it's finally growing back in. I missed my hair, silly I guess.

I really think the Amish have the right Idea about a woman's hair. They say that every inch of hair a woman has to wash at night, reminds her to wash the heart's of God's children with the same gentleness the next day. I think these little beliefs is what makes them smile so much.

Donetta said...

Oh Bren how wonderful a gift. This is such a small planet. It is such a small country and the neighborhoods hold so many folk who have crossed paths and do not even know it. To have all of you come back together and to see how fast the life and days pass brings it a pause.
Oh what a gift to all of you. For you to see and feel those memories with those who you have shared them with. That connectedness. Plugged into time.
Your gifted with so much in all of that. To even see the dear woman who kept such fond memories of you. The days of trees how marvelous. Makes me want to plant some for the kids. To have roots! This is a gift I desire to give our kids, those roots.
I see kyle in his little face. One day in a flash of time my kids will be old. Man I am getting close to 50 and am so sunned at that. Time is a flash.
To get to touch those beginning of days though...You have been given a tremendous gift!
Your hair looks so different, it gives you a whole different character.
You sorta cut off the past...Now your beginning again...poetic ya know...

blog said...

Ii would LOVE to visit my childhood home. I'm so nostalgic I made a scrapbook of it. Maybe someday I'll be posting pitcures just like yours. What a nice story!

copperswife said...

What a very cool thing to have happen, and such a very fun day! Glad to hear that your mom is okay, but I'll remember her just as well.

The haircut is CUTE!

copperswife said...

Oh!! And tell that "old" Kyle, Happy Birthday from Copper's Wife!

Unknown said...

That is so neat! I have often wondered about the homes I grew up in and what they look like now. What a blessing to have the opportunity to go back and see it all again. That truly was a God thing!

Niki said...

What an amazing God-incidence! Wonderful that you had such a great afternoon there, and that it is still so much the same.
ILOVE the short haircut, it really suits you!

Susan said...

Oh, Bren! What a wonderful, delightful day! I would LOVE to go back to some of the houses I lived in as a little girl and see some of the people I knew then. So much fun! And I just love Lou! :)

Love that stool too - beautiful.

moreofhim said...

Hello, friend! I have been so busy and just spent about 20 minutes catching up on your life! Wow! You've been busy, too! I love that you got to visit your childhood home, and yes, that really is a God thing!

All your quilting projects are gorgeous, as always! I'm ashamed to tell you that I still haven't gotten anything done. The only thing I've done is get my machine out and ready to go. *sigh* I do hope that I'm able to do some sewing/quilting soon!!

It was good to visit you! Take care, dear friend, and what wonderful posts!

God bless you - Julie

simple country living! said...

Bren~
How blessed you are to have been able to take a stroll down memory lane! What a great day I'm sure it was for you!
Thanks for blessing us with your story! Have a great weekend!
Hugs~~
Leona

julieQ said...

How neat is that! You were being greeted by a "member of your family" and did not even know it...very fun!

Alesha said...

1. Sorry I haven't been around in a while. :-/
2. Your haircut is TOO CUTE!!!
3. What a great day you had, and what wonderful memories you were able to revisit.
4. You have been keeping yourself very busy these days, and that manroom is looking great!
5. Oh, such a sweet experience for Charlotte...I think I'm a little jealous! LOL!

It was nice to catch up with you! I'll try not to take so long to come back!

Blessings,
Alesha

Libby said...

How wonderful to experience all those memories again *s*

shelia said...

Isn't it funny how when we go back to somewhere we used to live..we find that is has shrunk!!! HONEY WHO SHUNK the HOUSE!
I'll be praying for your mom and birthday blessing to kyle as well!!

p.s. Emerson's room is almost the exact same color too!!! great minds and all.....

NeeCee said...

It's so good to be back. I've been fasting from electronics this last week and your blog was the first blog I headed to. :0)

I will try and post pictures of my quilt tomorrow. I'll also take the measurements. I'm so new at this, I'm clueless. :0) Thank you for offering to send me the batting. I would love to see it really completed. Your family stays in my prayers.

~JoAnn~ said...

Bren~ How wonderful to have a family that you can enjoy things with. What a lovely story.
Blessings,Joann

Kimberly said...

What a wonderful day Bren! What fun it would be to go thru the houses I lived in as a child! I think it is neat as well that your mom and sister were all there too. And... I LOVE your haircut!
Keeping you all in prayer!
Kimberly