This Old House

Throughout my childhood, I lived in two houses - each of which hold bits of my heart and most of my memories. When we moved from our house on Wilton Road in Cleveland Heights, I cried and mourned it dearly. I never thought another place would feel like home. But sure enough, Circle Drive became a home in itself bringing new memories with the people that I love. 

Some may scoff that home is not a place, it's the people you are with. But I say it is both. It is not just walls and a roof, but the setting for experiences that shape your being. It is my room where I spent so much time with my friends during silly sleepovers and girls' nights. It is the floor on which my dear friend who is now my husband and I played with toy trains like little children at not-so-young of an age. It is the couch that my family and I sat on on Christmas morning, debating whether we open stockings or presents first (Stockings... It is ALWAYS stockings). It is the kitchen where many Mickey Mouse waffles were made. It is the backyard where dogs that we love and have loved have played. 

Now this house will be lived in by someone else, but it will always belong in part to and have a hold on me and my family. It will be a place that I drive by with my children someday and my husband Charlie and I will share with them how often we sat in that driveway that my dad laid brick-by-brick, just talking about life throughout our high school years. We will tell them about the parties that we had there - full of innocence with orchestra kids playing games and watching movies. I will tell them about how all of my high school girlfriends used to come and sleepover every Christmas break, and we would eat WAY too much food and never feel bad about a bite, all the while laughing with my mom - their choir teacher. I will tell them how dad would grill those delicious Heinen's burgers for us to indulge in as my mom and I sat on the screened-in back porch together, listening to the sounds of the woods and the creatures that shared our serenity.

Here is a look at our last moments in this house combined with some of the best from before. Just as is true with 1789 Wilton Road, 10 Circle Drive will always be my home - one of them, each important in their own way. 

There's a house
Whose rooms
I know by heart.

Where I tended the garden
and read my books.

Where dreams were dreamt
And memories made.

Where children grew up
And I grew old.

There's a house
Where life was lived

A house
Where I belong.

- Elizabeth Lambert Wood