Sheleen
03-12-2005, 01:11 AM
I haven't been here for a while - I moved house! Such a lot of hard work... and no internet access for over two months (argh!!!!!!)
Well, I'm back now and wanted to tell you all about my first day in my new home....
After we moved all the boxes and furniture in, we all needed a well-deserved teabreak. No chairs in the front room, so we all parked our bottoms on whatever we could... and mine just happened to land on the windowsill :)
It was there I noticed a big brown envelope, addressed to the previous owner (same surname). It wasn't sealed, and so I took it upon myself to have a peek inside.
It was six copies of the local parish magazine. Front cover and main story was all about Sarah Coope.... the previous owner of my new home. There in black-and-white was her whole life story - how she moved into the house with her husband and started a (large) family, how her husband had died in my bedroom, and thatshe had lived on a further 18 years still being an active member of the parish church. Sarah and her family were the first people to live in my house - they moved here in 1954. Her garden has become very overgrown.... but you can still clearly see that this is a garden that was tended by a woman who had been through the war - there was purple sage growing under the window, five huge fuschia's, two beautiful lilacs and the BIGGEST camelia i have ever seen. There's a space where there was once a very impressive vegetable plot, and even an outside loo.
So much information about this lovely woman... and yet her family had not helped tend the garden for a while, and had left this envelope and all its contents - how terribly sad, I thought. But then, perhaps they don't need a parish magazine to recall their mothers life.... and they left it for me so I would find their family history :)
Incidentally, I thought that the family may have not seen this letter, and posted it back to the sender with a letter of explanation. Turns out, the sender is my fourth year middle school teacher.... I hope she manages to track down the family and pass on the lovely story in the magazine about their mum. (BTW... six magazines because they had six children )
It has given me a lot to think about... and helped me find a little bit of renewed vigour in searching out the rest of my family tree :)
Well, I'm back now and wanted to tell you all about my first day in my new home....
After we moved all the boxes and furniture in, we all needed a well-deserved teabreak. No chairs in the front room, so we all parked our bottoms on whatever we could... and mine just happened to land on the windowsill :)
It was there I noticed a big brown envelope, addressed to the previous owner (same surname). It wasn't sealed, and so I took it upon myself to have a peek inside.
It was six copies of the local parish magazine. Front cover and main story was all about Sarah Coope.... the previous owner of my new home. There in black-and-white was her whole life story - how she moved into the house with her husband and started a (large) family, how her husband had died in my bedroom, and thatshe had lived on a further 18 years still being an active member of the parish church. Sarah and her family were the first people to live in my house - they moved here in 1954. Her garden has become very overgrown.... but you can still clearly see that this is a garden that was tended by a woman who had been through the war - there was purple sage growing under the window, five huge fuschia's, two beautiful lilacs and the BIGGEST camelia i have ever seen. There's a space where there was once a very impressive vegetable plot, and even an outside loo.
So much information about this lovely woman... and yet her family had not helped tend the garden for a while, and had left this envelope and all its contents - how terribly sad, I thought. But then, perhaps they don't need a parish magazine to recall their mothers life.... and they left it for me so I would find their family history :)
Incidentally, I thought that the family may have not seen this letter, and posted it back to the sender with a letter of explanation. Turns out, the sender is my fourth year middle school teacher.... I hope she manages to track down the family and pass on the lovely story in the magazine about their mum. (BTW... six magazines because they had six children )
It has given me a lot to think about... and helped me find a little bit of renewed vigour in searching out the rest of my family tree :)