I sent Kristen off to school on May 17. It was her last day of walking to school from our house on Monarch Drive. She was pretty sad as she left and cried as she walked to school. We told Kristen to walk back to the house and that is where we would pick her up that day and for the next week. A small comfort to a breaking heart, "It's where all my memories are," she cried.
We had a couple of keys to return that we had located in the move. Kristen walked up to the house as we pulled up after a long day of moving, cleaning, and unloading. She and Chris went in to the house to meet the new owners. I was too tired, and frankly, I had already said my goodbyes. I didn't need to see someone else setting up in my house. As I sat in the Pilot waiting for Kristen and Chris, Kristen came running out to the car with tears running down her cheeks and great sobs engulfing her. I opened the front door and pulled her on to my lap.
The new owner, Shirley, came out to invite us back in, but both Kristen and I were done at that point. Shirley was a lovely lady. She said that "Kristen's" bedroom would now be a room for her granddaughters and that she would keep Kristen's Eiffel Tower mural on the wall and that Kristen could come and visit anytime. It helped a little.
As we finally left the house, Kristen noticed dried tear drops on her glasses and whispered, "I am never going to clean these glasses again."
A couple of days later, I tried to clean her glasses when she wasn't looking. She found me while in the process and wasn't happy. It was her last link.
We've all been a little homesick. I know for myself that I whispered one morning, "I just want to go HOME." Chris heard me and pulled me in to a hug. Crazy to be so sentimental for a house. But it was a house full of memories, and we all missed it.
