And so I did.

My parents were moving out of the house I'd grown up in. Not only had the old homestead been sold but it was about to be torn down and carted away. We went to visit for one "Last Supper" with my parents. Myself, my two sisters, my only niece, my girlfriend and our dog Radar. Dinner was long over. My sisters and niece had left earlier. My girlfriend was sitting at the kitchen table talking to my mother. I was sitting on the stairs in the living room taking one last look, trying to commit it all to one final memory before it was all gone - forever. The room was in disarray. No rugs or curtains, nothing on the bare walls. Stacked boxes, some full, others overflowing, some with things hanging out were all about the room. As I sat there I remembered one of our first mornings in the "new" house, the first house of our very own. 38 years earlier I had come half way down the stairs and was sitting exactly where I was now. The room was in pretty much the same condition as it was now, but it was a moving in rather than leave taking process. I clearly remember thinking at 5 years old, "So, this is where I'm going to grow up." My girlfriend came to find me and said, "It's time to go. Your mother's tired and she's got a lot to do tomorrow and a big day with the moving." I told her the story, ending with me sitting in the very same place 38 years earlier contemplating that this is where I was going to grow up. I got a little choked up. She thought for a few seconds, shrugged, and said, "And so you did. Lets go." And so we did.