I wrote the words below on February 16, 2020, after being in Belpre to help Mom move out of the house that was our family home for 30 years. Dad had been gone for more than a year, and it was time. She was ready. And, I guess, we were all ready too. I mean is there ever really the right time? Are we ever really ready for life’s difficult changes? After going through the experience of losing Dad, grieving alongside Mom, my brother and our families, I realize that one can never truly be ready for such grief, such loss. But, I have also learned that God shows up in times such as these more than ever if you’ll just open your heart and let Him in. He will walk with you through the fire. He will pull you up and out and teach you lessons you never knew you needed to learn.
I have learned that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than the love that is shared within a family. And, I have learned that a house is just that- a house. But a home...a home is the people that love you, the people that surround you, the people that know your ins and outs, the people that know your loves, your passions and your deepest flaws, but they love you for all that you are- the good, the bad, and the ugly. This has been more apparent to me in the recent months as Anna is rounding third and heading home with high school. She is taking her final lap. As she prepares to take flight in this next journey of life, I pray that she remembers that she will always be home. We, the people that love her the most, Matt, me, Jack, Abby, and Maggie, will be with her in spirit, cheering her on every step of the way. I know that Mom, Jason and Kim, and their boys will be praying for her well being. And, without a doubt, I know her Pap will be with her in every way. Oh, how his love and pride will beam down on her.
Matt and I built our house in our first year of marriage. But it is easy to see, that in our 18 years of living here, having and raising four amazing humans , this house has built us. Our love will go with Anna, and we will be waiting with arms wide open when she comes home.
Home. 404 Stone Road has been home to The Gandee Family for 30 years. This was home for Jason and me, and our many shenanigans - including do or die late night Euchre battles. This was home for me when I got my driver’s license, graduated high school and college. This was our home when Kim, my sister-in-law, joined our family. This was home when Matt and I dated, got engaged and married. This was home where all 8 of the grandbabies crawled, napped, walked, and slept on Nana and Pap’s bedroom floor. This house has always been my deepest sense of home... until today. As we pulled out of the driveway and headed “home” to Mason, admittedly crying so hard I was for sure I wasn’t breathing, I realized home is not the address or the physical space of the house; home is the dear, precious people that live within the walls of the house with us. Home is the love, the laughter, the tears, the precious memories that were created within those walls. So, even though last night was my last night to sleep in my old bedroom, and this morning was the last morning coffee at 404 Stone Road, I will never not be home because the beautiful people- Dad, Mom, Jason and Kim and the boys, and Matt and our babies who made this house feel like home, are still right here with me. And, now we will all move forward together and no matter where that is, it will be HOME because we’ll take the memories, traditions and love with us, and better yet we’ll make more of them.
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