She Sows Seeds

simple country living

The End of an Era

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Over the weekend, our family and friends gathered at the one place that has been constant in our lives for the past thirty years to say good-bye.

My mum has recently sold our family home, the only home I’ve ever known, and will embark on new adventures soon. But Super Grandi wanted to gather together the people who had helped shape the moments and memories we’ll take away from our special place in the Thorpy hills, for one last hurruh, a celebration and send off for both mum (who has lived in the district for 42 years!) but the house itself too…which is so much more than just bricks and mortar.

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Decades old friendships of my parents (who my sister and I called ‘the grown ups’), some who have themselves since moved from the district and I hadn’t seen in years, returned for the send off. Our family friends who have a woodfired pizza trailer business churned out yummy pizzas and my siblings offspring ran amok in the garden just like we used to. Most people commented on how most of their memories involving our home were of another little chubby toddler girl with a name starting with E. Even though Eleanor won’t remember Grandi’s house, I love that she starts gasping and kicking her legs when we turn down her road, that she pushes open the door and struts in like it’s her own home, and that she has gotten to play in my cubby house and in our playroom and has slept soundly since a newborn in my childhood bedroom in her great-grandmother’s cot.

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A few friends who couldn’t make it have sent me messages saying they hope it wasn’t a sad occasion – on the contrary, it was a celebration of thirty years of family, events, memories and little tiny moments all woven together to make our lives. I’m surprisingly not (yet) mourning the loss of our home, definitely the loss of having mum around the corner, but the home itself is going to a lovely couple who I’m sure will make their own memories with their own family. As cliche as it sounds, there really is time for every season, this just happens to be the end of a season. Mostly, I’m so happy for my gorgeous mum and all that lies ahead of her – new adventures, new surrounds and new bright beginnings. It’s exciting, and if she’s happy, we’re all happy. We still have another few weeks of Grandi as a neighbour too, a real last hurruh just with us family for Easter. Plus, we’re putting a sofa bed in the new sewing room/home office/Grandi’s granny flat…

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Comments

  1. Hi Emma, enjoyed your post, wonderfully written and indeed all the very best to Gabrielle and for the new stories yet to be written. Xx

  2. Have lots of memories at that house also, unfortunately we couldn’t make it as it was Rheannas birthday. Will miss knowing that it’s Aunty Gabrielle’s house. I hope you all have a lovely Easter at the house xx

  3. What a wonderful sounding celebration of a house and its memories.
    My Mum just put our family home on the market, the one I grew up in, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.