Monday, September 1, 2008

Strange Minds Think of Strange things

On Friday my only grandson is getting married. I am excited for this event which has brought another event with it; all of my living siblings will be together for the first time since our oldest sister, Carol, passed away three and a half years ago. Bill, Lois, David, Dolores, MaryHell and me. We plan to spend Saturday at Dolores' house for a good and long past due visit. I am especially excited to see Bill because he is like a fart in a skillet...hard to keep up with. He travels a lot.

I stated that strange minds think of strange things because as I was thinking of the timeline between Carol's passing when we were last all together, I thought of the house Carol and Dave had lived in for about forty-five or fifty years. The house where they raised their family of five children. It was a very nice home, which Carol and Dave took great pride in, always keeping it well maintained and looking good.

It so happens that a couple of years after Dave passed away, developers came into that neighborhood and bought up every home there, planning to build a large shopping/office complex. Carol sold the property and moved into a brand-spanking new home. Just a few months before actually moving in, Carol was diagnosed with brain cancer. She died in that new home, never getting to truly enjoy it.

Meanwhile some of the homes in her old neighborhood were torn down and some where jacked up off their foundations onto steel girders for moving to a new site. Carol and Dave's home was one of the latter. It was temporarily moved to a lot not far from it's original plot of land, along with several others, waiting for someone to come along and buy it from the developer. This lot was on Yellowstone Avenue in Pocatello, Idaho. I have to say that Carol loved that home and all the memories that it held for her. Yellowstone is a main thoroughfare in Pocatello, so family and friends could see that house sitting there looking lonely and forlorn, as often as they drove that route to WalMart or the Pocatello mall.

A day or two after Carol had passed away, her friend since early childhood, Karen and her daughter Misty, were driving that route after dark. As they passed by, they noted that the lights were on in that house. So what, you say? Well that house was sitting on the moving trailer, or whatever it is called, and was not connected to any electric power, plumbing, water , or any of those things which bring life to a structure! Was it Carol, saying her final respects to her long time home or maybe soaking up the memories of all the years she spent there with her family? No one will ever know, but it was indeed a strange happening.

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