21 Sep Good bye old friend
This is a blog post I never expected to write.
I had always planned to show beautiful pictures of our lake house in Florence, Alabama. Our retreat. Our place to unwind, stare at the water, and reflect.
But instead I’m saying good bye.
Last week, we woke up to a 1 am phone call you never want to get. My stepson was shouting, “Dad, the house is on fire. ” My husband threw on his clothes and drove at breakneck speed to reach the house in a record 90 minutes. He called me at 3am, his voice shaking, saying, “It’s gone.”
The good news first. My stepson, Keith, is ok. The firefighters are ok. The house is not, but as they say, it wasn’t a heartbeat. But you know what, it was like a dear friend. Always there. Always comforting.
The fire raced across the roofline so our entire 2nd floor is gone. Had my husband, Keith and I been there, sound asleep, we could have easily died since the fire burned at that end first. It’s a miracle Keith Jr. woke up to the smell and got out. The downstairs doesn’t look as bad, but firefighters told us they used one hundred thousand gallons of water to put out the stubborn fire so there’s alot of water damage.
This is our bedroom.
These are the steps. Keith had refinished some old oars that were mounted on the wall as a handrail, with a wooden pelican that was the newel post.
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This is a window in our bathroom with a wrought iron stand that held my bathing suits.
The firefighters were amazing. They pulled out an American flag that had been on my husband’s grandfather’s grave. They were kind. How do we repay them? Thank you is all right now.
But I want you to see how it used to look, from the beginning of our lake house journey.
It started with this sweet little blue house, which we loved, but outgrew.
So ten years ago, we added on. It was my project after I left my television news career. This was a place where you never thought about a deadline.
The house was my baby. Collecting things that would make it special was so much fun for me. I can’t show you many of the special pictures because most are on my iphone and they don’t transfer well to the blog so I’m using what I have.
It was board and batten. People often said it looked like a Nantucket house. All I can say is it was us. I think it reflected our personalities. We love to laugh. Keith and his son love to cook. I love to decorate. Keith loves to fish.
We love to have people come over and hang out. Too many good times to remember, and a little sad to think about now. But they are good memories.
So even though we say good bye for now, we hope to rebuild and make new memories someday.
Good bye sweet house. You served us well.
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