I’m sitting in this garden for the last night. The sun is low in the sky and the birds are calling to each other before nightfall. I’m cold, there’s a cool wind blowing, but that’s not what I am feeling. Sadness, regret, happiness, fear all of those things. It’s almost time to go. How can I leave?
I walk slowly round the garden that my Dad planted.
We are down 6 fish in the pond. The kookaburra must have eaten the other 14. The lawn is looking decidedly brown, but the hose must sit carefully tightly coiled for months to come. The water restrictions are in place and the fires are too close for comfort. How long ago was it that a dear family friend planted it out. A favour repaid she did is so well done that it is positively blooming. Australian natives not the roses, hollyhocks and cottage plants I wanted but Australian natives, strong hardy plants just like her. My neighbour Ian is getting in his washing and he calls out to me over the fence.
“I see you have sold then.”
“Yep it was only up on the internet for 24 hours I was kind of hoping it wouldn’t be so fast.
it’s a sad day for Sue and me”.
“We’ll miss you too Ian, I remember you moving in with the child bride”
“Just had our silver wedding”
I know we went to the party. There quite a few parties, wasn’t there?
We chatted 10 minutes, just had we had always done…. he’s a bit far right in his politics for me but he will do….he drove my husband to hospital when he broke all his fingers walking along the beach and his wife left flowers when my dog died…good honest people ..I will miss them.
The house is bulging with memories, a wedding, a funeral, a birth. Christmas was always spent here, sometimes just the 2 of us, sometimes 16. Sometimes we had to adjust the seating as 3 of the family were pregnant all at the same time. There are a lot of Christmases in 45 years and a lot of memories. As I shut the door for the last time and walk down the drive, I look at the sign on the front lawn, it has a huge triumphant SOLD sign on it,
The new people will make it their own. They seem quite nice but who knows. I hope they will be kind to the house because it has been very kind to me.
