I’m not going to go too far back for this week’s post. Just 60 years back to the year 1962. I was just two years old. My parents had a house built where I would grow up and my parents would live for the remainder of their lives. And something else special happened there too. Well behind their house. But I’ll talk about that in a little bit.
As I said, the year was 1962. Here are a few pictures of the foundation of their new home. Afterall, this week’s prompt is foundations.
It was the foundation of a ranch home a little under 1200 square feet with a walkout basement. A home that would have three bedrooms, and later four, for a family that would grow to four girls. Here was the foundation of a home that my mom would live in until her death in 1998 and my dad until his death in 2008. The foundation of a home where a family would celebrate Christmas and birthdays. Go trick or treating on Halloween and then come home and dump all our candy out on the living room floor to sort. A home that would see many cats and even a shetland pony (well she stayed in the little barn). A home that would get painted and wallpapered over many times over. The basement would soon have a finished bedroom, family room, and bathroom, as well as a laundry area and workshop. When the foundation was poured in 1962, this home was just the beginning of life within its walls.
In 1998, two things happened. First a great windstorm blew through our area and my parents lost 20 trees in their yard. The yard looked like a war zone. But the house’s foundation stood strong. Sadly, my mother passed away two months later and my dad’s foundation was rocked. After 48 years of marriage, the house just didn’t seem the same. But he carried on. The house afterall was home. Home to the memories. Home to my dad’s train set and workshop. Home to his yard still full of trees. He lived their for almost ten more years until his death in 2008.
Flash forward 44 years after my parent’s foundation was laid to 2006. Go back and look at the last picture above and notice the large tree in the left back of the picture and then take a look at the large tree in the right back of this picture. On a cold day in January 2006, the foundation was poured on my new house being built directly behind my parents’ home.
This tree would be right outside our bedroom window. The foundation was being laid once again for a home that my dad watched being built right out his kitchen window. This foundation would see our daughter get married in the backyard. Since we were a little older, it would be the place where our grandchildren would come and play. The foundation would see our family grow to twenty. The foundation would also witness the death of my brother in law who lived with us the last year and a half of his life before passing away from ALS. It would know happy times. And it would know times of sorrow.
Sadly my dad passed away just a year and a half after we moved into our new house. A year later his house was sold to a nice young man. The house would come to know a new family, but its foundation would remain the same.
We just recently moved from our house of 15 years. Now it is time for a new family to be welcomed by its foundation. Time for a new family to create memories and stay safe in the house’s firm foundation.
Ancestors Across the Ages 