Precious Memories

Down "Keeling Lane" is an open field that was once home to my Grandparents, the home that my Mom was raised in. The house is no longer there, it actually was moved by a cousin to another location and "rebuilt." That seems to be a pattern in our family, reusing old things. The "Old Place" stood on this land from the 1860's until the 1980's, some 120 years. Built by Great-Grandparents, it was home to three generations of Keelings. It never had electricity or plumbing, but for that era, few did in Arkansas.

My Mother's memories of that homeplace are strong even though her Dementia has robbed her of a big part of her adult life. She loves to remember the little playhouse that Grandpa built for her. Every summer she spent many happy moments "playing house," pretending she was cooking a meal for her husband with the little aluminum pots and pans that she had received as a Christmas present. She talks about going after the cows in the afternoon in the lower pasture, driving them back with her dog Fido's help for milking. She laughs as she says, "I had to run them past the apple orchard, they always wanted to stop and eat the fallen ones!"

That farm is an important part of our family, a testament to the strength of Home. Some of the outbuildings remain. The "new" house that my Dad and Uncle Walton built in 1949 was home to my Grandparents in their later years and then Mom and Dad's retirement home. On this Mother's Day I like to think about all of the happiness that piece of land has given our family and I thank God that my Mom still has those precious memories in her heart to cherish.