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Wednesday 15 May 2013

A hint of magnolia


For the past week I have been staying 'back home', tackling some more of the necessary (slow but steady) sorting-out of the contents of my late mother's apartment, visiting relatives and generally having a bit of a nostalgia trip. One day I decided to tour round the area looking up the houses and places that are significant to my family story. This one, the red-brick house, belonged to my maternal grandparents and it was here that I was first brought home as a newborn. My grandmother very sadly died a few months before I was born. My parents lived here with my grandad until I was about three, when we moved to a new bungalow. The white-painted house next door was, in those days, a post office and general store and belonged at one time to my great-grandparents and then to my great aunt.

I was a bit wary of standing in the street taking photos of someone's house, but luckily the elderly owner was pottering around in the garden in the sunshine. I told him that it was the house I'd lived in as a child, and he looked disbelieving of me, saying that he'd lived there for 48 years. (I took that as a big compliment!)  The beautiful magnolia tree was not planted when I lived there, but I love magnolia trees so I was very happy to see it prettifying the house.

5 comments:

  1. It must be strange to see someone else in what was your house before..The tree is wonderful!

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  2. Hello Jennyfrecles, has been long time I didn't get opportunity to come to your blog and leave comment. I am sorry to hear that your mother passed away. Your blog is always full of beautiful photos and your text is of this quality reflecting your calm, wonderful personality... well as I try to imagine! We are actually in Austria but moving to Ireland very soon. Kind of closer to Saltaire!

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  3. We're both fortunate to be able to revisit those places where we began our lives. People sometimes frown on trips down memory lane, but I think it's important to some of us. I took a similar trip myself, you may recall. Although the house where I was born, has changed substantially.

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  4. It is interesting to gain this perspective on the house where you first lived. In a few weeks, I have to go back to my hometown for a day. Maybe I should stop in at my first home, too. I saw it a few years ago and it was pretty similar to the way it was when I lived there.

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