Today was a good day because it was another day that I got to connect with someone. I headed out early to an estate sale in Kenilworth and I have never walked into a house like this one. Some of the homes you walk into feel empty, sad and full of someone's forgotten memories. I shiver sometimes when I walk into some of these "sad" houses and one time even broke down in tears in someone's cold abandoned bathroom.
This house was different because it was so warm, welcoming and felt so safe to me. I was in a bedroom that reminded me of my old babysitter;s bedroom and the memories flooded in. Not good memories because she was mean to me and hindered my development as a child because of her meanness. This lookalike room wasn't Senhora Arlandas room, this room felt warm and you just wanted to sit there all day watching Oprah. I sat there for a awhile on the bed and wished I had grown up in a house like this. I just knew and felt that the people who lived there were happy people.
I was in the kitchen when I overheard the owner was there and I just had to find her to tell her I loved her house. As outdated as it was I wanted it, I wanted to move in and live there forever. She was a little old lady, very well put together and her kind welcoming energy drew me straight to her. I told her what I felt and she said "It was a very happy home, a very happy home and I'm going to miss it so much". Her husband of 60 years just passed away and she couldn't live in that big house by herself so she was selling off the contents to move to Connecticut to live with her daughter. She didn't want to go, I could tell. I almost wanted to tell her, "I'll stay here with you".
She talked to me for a bit and she was so sad about losing the love of her life. How she didn't break into tears I don't know but the pain was all in her voice. I told her she's a very strong person to stay here and watch all these people walk in and out of her house, it would kill me. She responded, "I'm not that strong, really". I hugged her and told her she was and wished her the best.
I love these moments.