When I went back to Pennsylvania last year, I drove by the house that all of my kids grew into their adult years in. It had been a great house for us, chock full of memories. In the summer of 2012, DeDe and I had signed it over to a couple that had a young family, and they were so excited about having their first house. They left a bottle of champagne on the mantle while the Sorensen crew finished our final stages of moving out. We had such hope that this new family would love the house as much as we did, and that their kids would grow up and fill the house with more memories.
When I returned in 2017, what I found was far from what we had left behind. The new family had recently abandoned the place. Some windows had been broken and boarded up. The yard showed the signs of being suddenly abandoned. An old vehicle sat strangely canted on the driveway. There were notices taped to the door: repossession by the bank, shut offs by utilities. Of course, none of this changes the memories that the Sorensen family built there, but seeing the place in this state was a strange punch in the gut.Yesterday, my son Daniel decided to do a Google search, and found a Zillow listing for the place. Turns out that someone bought it, and did a classic "flip", just like they show on TV. The house looks great, with a nice yard and the inside dressed up well, with bright but cool neutral colors. Some timely additions and improvements make the house sparkle again. There is a pending offer, so maybe this house will begin a new life after being abandoned so suddenly.
I suppose this is one of those cases where life is like a house. Things change, they always will, and sometimes they don't go as planned. But we trudge on through life, and turn the corner to face the next challenge.
Coming to the Bay Area in 2012 was a restart for me and for my family. I had to learn a lot of new things for the new job I took. Some of these things were about my inner self, as much as for my work. Sadly, I lost DeDe to cancer in 2014. But life goes on, and I continue to learn new things about myself. My creative side is flourishing now. I'm writing a novel that draws on the experiences that surrounded that move in 2012, and inspiration abounds.
Today, there is as sale pending on that old but updated house, and I hope that the buyers will find in this place a great new beginning like we did in 1995. Life is continual cycles, beginnings and endings, breaking down and building up.
Happy Saturday from Silicon Valley.
