Two items in the email today. First, word from my brother that the house we grew up in was torn down this week. It was accompanied by photos of the gaping nothing. As my brother wrote, “It was almost impossible to drive by without turning our heads to see the good old house that held so many memories. While it was no longer in our possession, the fact that the house still stood standing in the same place with its same exterior always felt reassuring and never felt like it was gone.”
The second thing that showed up in the inbox was Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30. Somehow this second message made it easier to deal with the first.
Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan th’ expense of many a vanish’d sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.
This post is so touching, so lovely. Thank you for sharing it with us all.
Thanks, Valerie. Wishing you a great year coming up.
glad you found comfort in the sonnet..
Shakespeare to the rescue…
Jack
Your house was my second home – so many good memories. Will’s words express all our thoughts.
Thanks, Eddie. I checked Google Earth, and there was your parents’ house a few door over.
I was so sad to see your old home demolished. I have so many good memories of my times with your family in that house!
Thanks, Irene. Nice to hear from you. I just passed by there today…gulp. Hope you and your family are all doing well!
The shalom house! I shall miss it too.
Oh, Marie, thank you so much for your thoughts! I love you all.