Farewell to an old friend...

Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) wrote...

"One’s home is like a delicious piece of pie you order in a restaurant on a country road one cozy evening. The best piece of pie you have ever eaten in your life and can never find again. After you leave home, you may find yourself feeling homesick, even if you have a new home that has nicer wallpaper and a more efficient dishwasher than the home in which you grew up..."

As we prepare to leave our home in Franklin for the last time, I can relate. Home is not where the heart is or where we hang our hats. It is a state of mind, a 4th dimension, that exists within the structures we refer to as home. These things take many shapes... Houses, apartments, trailers etc. As we prepare to pack and move our belongings to our new house in Minnesota, I realize that our "home" is coming with us, part of it anyways. That being said, this house, this place, will always be a part of our home no matter where we live. I look around for the last time and see years of memories stuffed into this house. Memories of my children growing up, birthday parties, backyard swing sets, broken bones, laceration repairs, family dinners, Christmas presents, Thanksgiving dinners, graduation parties, good times spent with good friends and too many more to mention. All these things are trapped within the confines of these four walls in Franklin, Wisconsin. I have taken a great many, too many, photos over the years and these will help trigger my memories of these events, as they exist now only in my mind and the minds of my family and friends. 

We will come back and visit, but it will never be the same. Time has a way of smoothing out the rough edges of our memories. In due time, we will have to use GPS to get around our old  town, or get caught asking for directions. You can always go back to where you used to live, but, things will be different. Restaurants and businesses will have come and gone. We will ask ourselves "When did that place open?" We will wish   
the Chik-Fil-A was open when we used to live there. We will see old friends and tell old stories. But, at the end of the day, we will go back to our new house and new life. They say you can always go home, but that is not true...You see, we never really left.

Farewell Franklin, WI...You will be missed!

Goodbye Yale Drive...

Final Family Photo...