Walls That Cry
As most of you know I am a realtor specializing primarily in residential real estate. In my adventures of looking at distressed, bank owned, and pre-foreclosure properties I came across a home that really spoke to me. Now you may say that sounds crazy, but I am here to tell you that a lot of homes speak to me as I walk into them….some good….some not so good. But nonetheless, they speak to me.
It was a typical warm sunny day on July 21st, nothing particularly different than any other ordinary day. It was the normal routine…get up, walk and feed the dog, shower, eat breakfast, brush the teeth, and head out the door to begin a day of real estate…. talking to people, previewing homes, the normal stuff. But this day became particularly memorable to me as I walked into the ‘bank owned’ property on Sagamore Street.
The house had been abandoned, foreclosed on, and the bank most definitely owned the property. As I drove up into the driveway it appeared to be a normal everyday home in need of some basic lawn care and a little tender loving care… you know, things like mow the yard, add some shrubs and add a few bright colored flowers to give it some curb appeal. As I walked in the door I could see… it was most definitely a sad house…. The very first thing I saw screaming at me through the view of the kitchen was a huge hole in the ceiling of the family room. “What in the world?” was my immediate thought. The hole was big enough I could have crawled completely through it if I had taken the notion to do so. There was black mold all around it while the insulation was soaking wet from rain that had poured into the opening leading all the way to the roof top. Mold covered debris was falling from the area and infecting the entire room with its nastiness. All the drywall had been removed from the walls throughout the entire room, leaving only firring strips and 2 X 4’s lining the room. You could see original old brick walls peeking through in areas where someone had extended the house. It made me wonder….What did the original house look like? What was the original floor plan? Curious as I was, I noticed the fireplace had been completely removed. All that was left was a hole….a shell with the sky shining through as you peered to the top. How could anyone ever leave a house, which once was their home, in such shambles? There was no love there….not a spark of love…only tears crying out of the sad walls that surrounded me as I continued to preview the home. When I walked into each room I hesitated…wondering what was ahead of me. Some of the rooms were massive in size…one of the rooms was so large that it would make an absolutely perfect dance room for the avid ballroom dancer. It was huge in size. You could even Waltz throughout the room and never feel cramped. A large upstairs area had been added to the home and a long narrow staircase with a wooden banister on one side led the way to a massive master bedroom and what I could vision as a perfect nursery, a sitting room. a den, or even a study just for the master of the house. Now with these last few rooms in mind I could vision the possibilities of a home once again.
Mind you, I forgot to tell you the home was originally built in 1954…one year before I was born…so the place has been around for quite some time. But considering the age of the home it truly had some uniqueness about it.
Finally I made my way out to the back exterior of the home. There was massive wood decking with tucks and grooves everywhere… multiple levels up and down and a dried up and deserted waterfall casing in the middle of the massive deck. You could tell it was once the focal point of the entire back of the house. It really made me wonder what the place must have been like at one time. I’m sure it was once a sight that would have absolutely taken your breath away as you looked out the sliding glass doors of the home.
Then I saw what was identified on my fact sheet as a guest house. I was quite interested in seeing the little house…surely it was not crying the amount of tears as the main house. How could that be possible? How could it get any worse? Although there was a huge blue plastic tarp over the corner of the building making me a bit suspicious as I walked toward the building. Well to my sad surprise as I walked into the little house that I could picture to be so perfect as a mother-in-law suite, I found the whole corner of the roof had fallen in and it had an even larger hole than the main house. Now I understood the purpose of the blue tarp. The great expectation I once had in my sprit had been diminished. What was happening here? How could anyone let a once loved home get into such a sadden shape of disrepair? It made no sense to me…none whatsoever.
Then I noticed a small room that was probably no bigger than maybe 5’ X 6’ with a small closet off to the side. The room looked to be intact, much unlike the rest of the building, and inside the small closet, to my amazement, was a simple wooden cabinet not much larger than the old medicine cabinets. It was built into the wall similar to how a medicine cabinet would be placed. My curiosity had me going. I couldn’t stand it. I had to open the cabinet and see for myself. What ever could it be? This simple wooden cabinet built into the wall of a closet as if it were a hidden treasure. As I carefully opened the cabinet a smile came across my face as I peered into a billowing sea full of sewing threads placed so delicately and individually on its own dedicated little spindle. All the colors of the rainbow and more… spools of threads were there so neatly presenting themselves. There it was, I could feel the love that was once there in the home. Although the home was sad and the walls were crying uncontrollable tears of sadness…there was a small simple wooden cabinet smiling back at me with simple threads…spools of many colors.
At that moment I could see small delicate hands of a lady…a mother…a wife sitting at a sewing machine making garments for her family, beautiful curtains that most likely lined the windows of the home, and even simple delicate dresses for herself allowing her to express her beauty to her family. So now as I think of that home I know there is hope…because hidden in the closet of the small guest house is the simple cabinet full of beautiful colors smiling…waiting for someone to come to the rescue.
You see a mother always loves her family and her home. She has dreams and sees visions of the future. She sees life at its fullest and with the greatest of possibilities. She desires the very best for her family and her home. A mother always wants to wipe away the tears and stop the pain. So just like the lady that placed those spools of threads so delicately in the small wooden cabinet…just like the mother that wants to stop the pain of child… I hope someone can stop the tears and the sadness coming from the walls of this house located on Sagamore Street….
As I walked out of the house, still attached to the emotions in my spirit from the vision I had just experienced, a long time neighbor stopped me to inquire about the status of the home. At that moment in time I learned …as the story was told to me…the home had been purchased by a single mother who worked most of her life and became part owner in the popular small town restaurant that I personally frequent when I am visiting the area. She since passed and her only child had inherited the house and unfortunately became heavily involved in drugs and such. As a result of the personal afflictions, the child lost the house to the bank after borrowing money that could not be paid back.
The house that was paid in full and left to a cherished child now sits empty and completely in disrepair…AND…the walls cry tears of a mother’s heart.
Unfortunately, I’m only a realtor and an writer, I am not a magician. So all I can do is try to find someone to purchase the house and make it a home so we can stop the pain and dry the tears of the “wall’s that cry” at Sagamore Street!
I offer my services to write memoirs and life stories of you and your loved ones. It’s as simple as sitting on a front porch sharing story after story about your life and your loved ones as you relax in a rocking chair, chattering away about what you know best….your loved ones.
Please continue to read my blog http://rockingchairchatter.com and be sure to keep a watch for my new website http://www.myfrontporchfriends.com/ as we continue to write our stories.
Enjoyed the chat,
Lorraine
Lorraine McFarland lives in Plant City, Florida. She is a professional writer specializing in memoirs, life story writing,
and capturing memories of your loved ones.
Copyright, September 2011 by Lorraine McFarland. The author retains sole copyright to her contributions to this article.
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