Painting Memories

I spent the morning at my parents home painting the ceiling in their dining room.

It's amazing the flood of memories and emotions that rush on when you are doing such a task in the home you grew up in.

When I was a child, the existing dining room was actually the living room. We added a room to the back of the house after I was married and living elsewhere. That new room became the living room and the old living room became the dining room.

I guess after nearly 30 years of it being the dining room I had pretty much forgotten that it ever was the living room. But that fact is what brought on the memories this morning. For instance, as I was painting the north end of the room, I remembered that there was an electrical outlet right under where I was working. That outlet is usually hidden by the hutch. But when I was a child, that outlet was not quite behind the sofa. As a two year-old, I found it fascinating to lick my finger and stick into that outlet. It's amazing I am here to remember anything!

As I painted the ceiling my Dad supervised the entire time. He is now 81 years old. I thought about a time when he would have been painting the ceiling and I as a child would have been "supervising" or at least getting in his way. That caused me to remember the mural that was on the east wall. I wondered if it was still there under the current wall paper or did we remove it?

As I moved to the south wall, I remembered countless Christmas trees and opening gifts with my big brother. Then I looked out the window to the front yard now populated with evergreen trees at least 70 feet high, and I remembered the day my Dad, my Brother, and I planted them. They actually came in the mail. They were about 6 inches high then. Looking out that window, I saw my Dad as a young man, coming home late from work, in the dark, stuck at the bottom of the long driveway on a snowy night. I thought about the night my Mom overloaded the incinerator ( yes kids, there was a time when suburbanites actually had incinerators to eliminate garbage.) and nearly caught the house on fire. The chimney erupted in flames, our neighbor called the fire department, my Brother carried me out of the house and we watched the firemen, run up our driveway with hoses and axes. The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes but today, I remembered it vividly as if it happened last night.

I thought about my maternal grandmother. She suffered from Alzheimer's for years. She would live with us for one month at a time, on rotation with my Mom's siblings. This went on throughout my high school years. Grandma could be quite a handful, but we were lucky that she was always a gentle, pleasant soul.

I remembered all the times I was ill and Mom let me convalesce on the sofa in the living room. Any other time the sofa was for sitting. " If you want to lay down, go to bed."

In the last few years Mom & Dad have had some serious health issues. Thankfully they have recovered well and are in pretty good health. But still, on days like today when I am doing the work that my Dad truly loved to do around the house, I get a little melancholy and anxious.

So, I put a fresh coat of flat ceiling white latex on the ceiling of the dining room. A room that has housed countless family meals, holiday gatherings, and social meetings. The ceiling really didn't need to be repainted, but Mom really wanted it fresh for the holidays.

It didn't take me long to paint the ceiling today. It's amazing how reliving 52 years makes the time fly. Thanks Mom & Dad, for allowing me the opportunity to visit our past.

Much love to you both.