The time has come

I really have been dreading this. The lake house is going to closing on Friday. I really hoped the sale would fall through. But we got an email from the realtor that the buyer closed on her property on Monday, and would be ready to close on Friday.

Daughter and Son in Law made the final trip last weekend. They brought back so much, but there is still things we couldn't go through. I know I am losing yet more of my heritage. When V died, and it was obvious that Dad wasn't ever going back to the house, her son sold it. Dad lived there for 20 years. He had so much there. I found some things, but there were whole areas that I didn't have time to go through - beside the fact that G was "chomping at the bit" to return to Swampland.

When my mother and Dad contemplated moving to the lake house to retire, they hauled a lot of stuff up there. He had built a three car garage, and it was full. Daughter tried to go through it, but she couldn't get to it all. We both know there are still things there that would be of value - at least to us.

She did find the cedar chest where Dad's Masonic apron was stored. Of course, we are about 3 years too late with that one, but I really don't think he cared. He had stopped paying dues a long time ago. But he was supposed to have been buried with that apron. With the rest of the funeral fiasco, he didn't have a Masonic funeral either. We got him reinstated as a Mason. But, as I said, I don't think it was that important to him anymore.

So with the things that the vandals destroyed, the things that we have no room for, and the things we cannot possibly get through, another chapter closes. I still feel that I have failed. I have to let a property go. As I have said before, it is a property that he put so much into. But when there is no other desire to hold on to it in the family - what's the use.

The really ironic part of this whole thing. When we were there the middle of July, the property behind the house is being developed. We have waited all these years for other properties to be around this one. The house was set so far back from the road that you couldn't see it from the street. When Henry was alive next door, our place was safe. His relative that lives there now, I don't know if he would be watching out as well as Henry, but with a new property behind - maybe there was hope.

But now that's too late, and besides, the entire county has four sheriffs to patrol. I guess we (I) did the right thing. Now we just have to sign the papers.

Peace.