Thursday, April Fools Day

I hear the slap of my feet on the linoleum floor, and I look down at my toes... poor toes I think ruefully, they are so swollen, which is the reason I have parted momentarily with my usually comfortable Skecher Crocs. I climb the stairs for the 12 th time tonight and check each of the girls in the 5 bedrooms before bouncing down the stairs. My left hand runs along the smooth banister until I hit the bottom. Many times I have thought about the many stories this old house could tell if it could speak. This banister just isn't ANY banister, but the width of the stairs, and the care that was taken to fashion the scrolling trim that follows the stair case upstairs, the large rounded Post at the bottom with fancy trim on the top, all speak of a rather wealthy family who might have resided here maybe a hundred years ago, or maybe even more!

Who knows! The other day they took down the magnificent fir trees in the front yard, they had been gorgeous trees, providing many summers of shade and enjoyment I am sure, I stopped to count the rounds in the tree stump, curious about how many years old it may be. "Are you a boy scout??" One of my friends pulled her car up near the little hill where I stood counting the rounds on the tree trunk... I laughed "Nah, I was just wondering how old this tree is.. I am gonna miss these trees so much..." I looked out over the yard.."Looks so bare without them, so sad" She agreed with me before pulling out and waving good bye. I had stopped at 41, I began counting again. 71, 72, 73, 74, 75... WOW.. 75 years this tree had been growing to be the glorious landmark it had been. I wanted to cry. I saw the tree after they had cut all the branches off, it had to have been about 60-70 feet tall, much taller than the two story house where I worked is. Now it lay scattered across the yard in many large pieces, much bigger around than I.

I grabbed my tea as I passed the kitchen tables, and went into the semi dark Living room where I had been watching Serendipity before one of my girls had come down the stairs, those gorgeous old stairs, and asked for her meds, and to get her breakfast. " I missed you Miss Lemler!" Were the first words out of her mouth, I had smiled back at here, " I missed you to!" It was the truth too. Well, now its time for the other girls to be up, and I had better be ready to give some attention.