#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 13 - THE OLD HOMESTEAD

This week's prompt for the 52 Week Ancestor Writing Challenge is "The Old Homestead". As usual the prompt can be interrupted in any way that we choose.

My Old Homestead is where I have lived for the last 40 years. My husband and I bought our very modest house in 1978 just three years into our marriage after living in two rental places only. 

I came from an upbringing of rental houses as my parents never owned a home of their own.  But they were  always very homely places. My mother was a homemaker, which is a phrase not heard much these days. But wherever we lived, I can always remember curtains on the windows and handmade furnishings, knickknacks on sideboards, pot plants at the door, the sound of the sewing machine humming, working on some project. 

We moved regularly. By the time I was twenty I had lived in six houses in six different towns. This is not much by today’s standards, but in my youth it was something I felt keenly as I did not have a “place to call home” once I married that I could go back to. This was felt keenly by me when we travelled back to my husband’s family home and town for visits. 

Our Family home welcomed four children over the years. It was here that our family grew and put down roots. 

Although I occasionally hankered after a more modern or bigger house, I found myself content with just providing a family home. 

I remember thinking as our children grew up in our little house sharing bedrooms and growing up with only one small living room and no entertainment area, that at least they would always have a place to come home to.

We have welcomed three daughters-in-law and seven grandchildren into our family and home. My husband and I are growing old together in our “Old Homestead”. We no longer have nowhere to entertain. We have opened up areas and we have what seems like sooooo much space. We have grown into our little home. 

But most importantly we have memories. I can hear laughter, singing, music, arguing, tears and much more as I walk into old bedrooms that are now sewing rooms and guest rooms. There is always a cot and beds made up for whenever someone comes home or a “Grandie” comes for a sleepover. 

There is still an abundance of toys at the ready (some that were our childrens). The bookcase still has many Golden Books on the shelf. There is still the same old sandpit in the backyard, although our cheeky dog gets the most pleasure from it these days! My sewing machine can be heard to hum on many occasions, just like the one I remember hearing in my childhood.

Most importantly this Old Homestead still buzzes at different times of the year, mainly Christmas time with the sound of family. It is here that belonging, acceptance, talking, laughter, tears and generally just being rowdy are the things that make a home. 

But although it probably isn’t classed as a typical “Old Homestead”, it is in my mind the only “old Homestead” that I have had the privilege to love and cherish.