My Father's House

When they were first married, sometime in the mid-1940's, my grandparent's bought a little home in Mount Airy, NC. It was a simple log cabin. Over time, little by little they fixed it up. When I was a child it was a nice place to live. Very clean and tidy. A couple months ago it burned. The following are pictures from long ago and from my visit yesterday 12/08/07. (You can click on each individual picture to see a much bigger view.)

That's my mom on the far left. My brother John is sitting on her lap. I am second from the right in the white T-shirt with my mouth wide open. This picture was from 1974.

Here my brother and I are waking my dad on Christmas morning, 1974.

My brother John and I in bed pretending to be asleep on Christmas morning.

Daddy playing with yo-yo in the living room.

In the living room with brother John. Do we look excited? Yep!

My mom. That tree could almost qualify as a "Charlie Brown" model.

That's my grandpa Genoa with his handy/dandy pocket protector.

And this is the way the house looked yesterday.

...and the other side.

The backside of the house. My dad is in the lower right.

A shell of the same bedroom where my brother John and I woke my dad on Christmas morning so many years ago.

The Christmas tree was in front of this window where my mom stood with her blue suit, my brother and I looked so excited and my dad played with the yo-yo. Now-nothing but charred memories.

The front porch where I sat with my mom and neighborhood friends. Now-it's something from a nightmare!

My dad, wife-Laura and daughter- Lorien look at me through the remains of the house.

"Where would we be without hope in our hearts."