Thursday 29 September 2016

I Was Here

For the first time ever, I saw these pennies in the foundation of my parent's yard. I've walked over them thousands of times and my mom just pointed them out to me the other day. They were left by the previous owners and each penny is dated with the year they were born (mom, dad and kids). I've been thinking about my parents house and how much of our families history is there because soon we will have to wrap it all up and move on. The basement is exactly as my dad left it and my brother-in-law is going to have to rip it apart and make it new, as he so skillfully and artfully did in dad's room to give him a better send-off. My dad's legacy is literally written on the walls in the basement. He wanted to leave his mark when he knew he was leaving us. I didn't even know my dad was a writer until he was gone but when we leave our creative mark on this world, there it is... and there it remains for future discovery.

I'm so glad he did. Someday i'll have the heart to read it all but for now, it's enough just knowing it's there. I think my dad was inspired by the legacy that the home owners left before him. Clearly they were also sentimental. They left their kids recorded heights on the walls- the same 4 walls my dad wrote on. When I was a kid we moved so often that I became accustomed to ripping up some corner of the carpet to write "Lindsay was here" and the date, before the moving truck took us away.

My grandma's basement is filled with our entire extended families scribbles and eventually it will all come to pass, too. It will become a part of someone else's history and you can only hope that the next owners have a sentimental heart and want to preserve a piece of your past. People can tear down walls but these pennies are forever. 


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