My house on Deer Creek is beautiful, a two story and a full basement. There are seven bedrooms, four baths, a huge living room, sun room, and dining room. Also there’s a large kitchen, beautiful front port, gorgeous patio, and a trampoline in back where E and I fell in love.
I remember the first time I saw this house, I was 12 and my brother B and I drove up in our realtor’s sports car, after getting a Slurpy and 7-11. I loved the house, even when I first saw it. It was huge (at least that’s what I thought when I was 12), and very beautiful.
We bought the house, and moved in quickly. I chose a beautiful upstairs room with three windows, more windows than any other room. It was always light and warm in that room. I picked a blue and white stripped wallpaper and my mom, dad, and I fixed it up, along with decorating the rest of the house.
The house grew and changed with us. We redecorated, switched rooms around, and redid the entire master bathroom. The house was more beautiful than ever. My parents always dreamed about having climbing roses on the front of the house, so one summer we reworked all of the gardens, and when we were done, the house shone.
At Christmas B and I always loved to decorate the front of the house with lights. My dad let us be in charge and we always did as we wished. I remember one year, when I must have been 14 and B 10, when we edged all the windows and doors in lights. We spend hours on it, and it's one of my favorite Christmas memories.
When I was 15 I wanted a more “grown up” room, so my parents helped me move to the basement. We converted the huge playroom into my bedroom and painted the entire thing in one weekend. I choose to have the walls a yummy butter yellow, the ceiling blue, and all the woodwork white. It was spectacular, and huge!
Christmases and Thanksgivings came and went. My siblings grew up, M and Ch went from tiny children to preteens. I was a senior in high school before I ever got a boyfriend, (E) and we fell in love at the house, on the trampoline in the backyard.
E and I spent every summer night on the trampoline, and really got to know each other.
The next fall I left for college, but Deer Creek was still home. I still ate Sunday dinners with my family, and still had my room. After I moved out of the dorms I moved back home, and it was still the same beautiful house that seemed so big to me when I was 12.
Last Christmas was a tense one. My mom and dad weren’t doing well, but I would have never guessed it was my last Christmas at the house. New Years came and went, and when I made my predictions for the next year, I predicted that my parents wouldn’t stay together.
My mom moved out in May and never seemed to look back. My dad held onto the house, but decided in the last month that he needed to sell it. He’s completely moved out, and B is finishing moving out today.
The house will be painted and scrubbed, and then sold. The house will not be ours anymore. I will never have my family under one roof ever again, and I will never have Christmas as I did my entire life ever again.
E and I went up to the house last night to say goodbye. It is hard to say goodbye to a house you love. I’ve had many wonderful memories there, and grew from a child to a woman in the house. I had my first kiss on the front porch, and Ch spoke his first word inside its walls.
I walked all around and said goodbye to each and every room. I went into “stinky storage” and said goodbye to our storage room with the silly name. I went up to my old bedroom and looked around at a room I hardly recognized anymore. I said goodbye to the graves of our family pets Smudge and Henry. And then before I left I laid down on the trampoline with E to look at the summer sky one last time and I cried.
I cried for my family, who will never be a “family” again. I cried for my kitty Boo who had died so innocently in the dryer less six months before. I cried for my siblings who will never have a “perfect” childhood like I did, and I cried for my house, which will never be mine again. And I cried for all the loss I’ve experienced this past year.
