A House Full of Love

Tuesday evening we had a ladies night at my neighbor's house to celebrate our former neighbor's visit from New York. Our neighbor Marilynn, the matriarch of the block, hosted the get together at her home.


Heidi (seated), Roseanne and Marilynn (far right)

Marilynn has lived on our street her entire life. She grew up on one block and upon marrying her dearly beloved, now gone for 10 years, moved down the street to her grandparents' home.

She is now in her 80's and is the most amazing, independent, energetic woman you've ever met. And when you walk into her house, you walk into a house of memories.

She has black and white photos of her late husband and herself as growing children and earnest young high school graduates. There are more photos of her children, now long grown and married with kids of their own, whose smiling faces peer out from even more frames set throughout her rooms. She has sets of china teacups throughout her home, carefully arranged in little settings on side tables, built-in buffets and other nooks and crannies.

If you didn't meet the woman of the house when you first walked in, you would know that she is a woman whose family is everything to her. You would know that she values laughter and joy, and that friends and pets complete her world.

Her smile hasn't changed since her wedding photo, and she still has a zest and exurberance for life that is contagious to others.

You can tell when you walk into a house full of love, and Marilynn's house embodies it.