Mother's Day Spookiness

Yesterday was a super busy day.  I ran errands while the girls were at school (car wash, Hobby Lobby, pharmacy, accountant's office, picking up keys for the new intern at work...), then I came home and made them lunch, then Dad watched them for a while so Jack and I could go to work.  I got home about 3:30 and started frantically cleaning, since we're still in post-vacation-mess mode and my father-in-law and his wife were coming over for dinner.

As I was rushing around, I got warm so I opened up the screen door to let in some fresh air.  I looked outside and there was a car full of people, talking animatedly and pointing at my house.  Their windows were down, so I shouted, "Ya wanna buy it?"

A man shouted back, "We already did!"

Huh?

I said, "Oh?" because I couldn't think of anything witty.  He said, "We were the first owners of this house, back in the 60s!"

"Really!  Well, come on in!" I said.

"Seriously?"

"Of course!  I'm sure you'd love to see it!"

So they pulled around and parked in front, and came inside, everyone talking at once.

It turned out that the father had been president of the bank, and they had three kids when they moved in here - a girl, another girl, and a boy.  Spooky, because we have the same arrangement of kids!  They teased me that we were going to have another girl, because they'd brought their youngest sister home when they lived here (she wasn't with them yesterday).  If we do, we'll have to name her Betsy.  Speaking of names, the oldest daughter said that she has a granddaughter named Mary Grace!  Another bizarre coincidence - their bedrooms were in the same places that ours are now - the boy had Jack's room, the parents slept in ours, and the girls were upstairs.  They even had a baby changing area in the same place we have one now for Jack!

Of course, a lot has changed.  The kitchen is arranged completely differently from the way it was when they lived here.  The fireplace was added (I never knew that, I figured it was original).  The tile in the upstairs bathroom is original (and not too bad looking for 48 year old tile!).

They stood in the kitchen and pointed at the corner where they'd had their TV.  "Do you remember sitting right here and watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan?" they said to each other.

After they'd been here a little while they said that their mother had died this past year, and that their father was having a hard time, so even though they live all over the country, now, they'd come back here to remember, and to feel like they were near her.  She and their dad were married for 58 years.

I was so pleased to be able to let this family into our home, so they could feel close to their mom again.  They were so lovely.  It was obvious that they are a close-knit family - exactly how I hope my kids will be when they're grown.

When I said, "How funny that I just happened to be at the door when you stopped!  I'm usually in the kitchen.  And how odd that I felt moved to say something to you!"  They replied, "Oh, I'm sure that was Mom, making sure that we got a chance to visit our old home."

I hope so.

Happy Mother's Day.  I hope that you feel close to your mom tomorrow, wherever she is.