Thursday, February 26, 2015

Stories from my mother #7 - Open House

I started thinking one day about how our home was always open to others. The first one we had was Elizabeth Moody. She was a friend of Dad’s family. In fact he had visited her when he was in Seattle with the Navy. She had retired and decided to come back East. I’m not sure if she expected to live with his mother, but she started out there. They couldn’t get along, so I invited her stay with us until she decided where she was going to settle. She finally moved to Maine where she lived with a niece. We kept in touch until she passed on.

The next ones were Uncle Harold and Aunt Gloria. They had gotten married  and were buying a house, but it wasn’t ready to move into, so they stayed with us until it was.

Once I stopped working, we had Carolyn here most of the summers, and Bobby occasionally. When Bruce was 2 ½  Aunt Gloria left him here and went off to stay with  a sister in another city, leaving Harold a note that she was doing that.  She took Debby with her. We decided that I would keep him here while his Dad worked. I had lots of fun dressing him and Alan alike and treated them like twins. Aunt Gloria eventually came back so he went back home. All through the years, Bruce spent most of his week vacations here. When he was 16, he tried to commit suicide, and Debby told me when they came here to celebrate Christmas. I told his Dad and we talked to him. The problem he seemed to have was their relationship, so he stayed here for several weeks while he had psychological counseling. There was always room for him. Debby stayed here for lots of vacation weeks, as she and Beth were close. Craig only came occasionally.

One summer we took in 2 eight year old boys from the inner city; Michael and Kenny.They were the same age as Eddie. We took a liking to Kenny and had him back a couple of years, even bringing his little sister one time.

The longest stays were the AFS students, Ingrid and Rosita.  What a privilege that was. They became part of the family. We would also host students as part of a bus stop at the end of the year.

When the Girl Scout Council had International Camps, we hosted girls or leaders here for before and after camp. We’re still in touch with some of them.

One year when Jennifer was at Daycroft and her family was in Florida, we were bringing her here for Thanksgiving week. She called and said there were 2 sisters from India who needed a place to go for the week, so of course we welcomed them with open arms.

One summer, Billy Hewitt, a college student whose family had belonged to our church before they moved away, had an opportunity to work in New Britain for a man who was a member of the Board at Principia, the school he attended, and he called and asked if he could stay with us. Of course the answer was, “yes”.

From the time Chris and Kim were 4 and 5, they spent 2 weeks every summer with us. We had such a good time taking them places that we wouldn’t have gone to by ourselves.

After Dot and Bob moved to Florida, they came here for 3 weeks every fall. They would visit all their friends they had left behind. Now that Bob is in Florida, he comes every year for a visit. Carolyn and her family are now regular visitors. I still keep toys on hand for little ones.

Open Hearts, Open Arms




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