I know,  I said I had already done my last Blog from Andover but I am getting very emotional about leaving here!  I know, I can hardly wait to go home, but I am home in the house on the top of Bunker Hill, and now I have to leave, maybe for the last time.

Unfortunately there has not been a lot of showings of the house.  Not everyone is looking for a house with circa 1800 barns and 25 acres of forest!  I just hope a young family, as we were back in 1957, will find it in their hearts and wallet to buy this property.  It was a great place to grow up.  We milked cows, raised beef animals and pigs, had a huge garden, were members of 4H clubs, had foster children and NY Tribune Fresh Air Kids from New York every summer.  Life was wonderful when we were kids.  There  were few kids in the neighborhood up here on the hill, but we found lots to do during the summer. 

When the Andover Lake Association decided to block the black Reverend Fillpot from becoming a member of the Andover Lake Association (although he was a property owner on the lake) they wouldn't allow his family to swim in the lake, my mom an dad said we would no longer be members of this association and some how they were able to come up with enough money to put in an in ground swimming pool in back of our house.  As the majority of Herald Tribune Fresh Air Kids were black, this allowed us wonderful summers of swimming and and long friendships.

The best summer was when our brother Thomas, his wife Jean and their 2 sons Kip and Kirk, came home from the Micronesian Islands where they were working.  Having them home with us was wonderful.  I think we had 17 people living in the top of Bunker Hill that summer.   It was awesome!!!

But now, it is a sad, over grown property.  I hope someone will look at it as it could be and not what it is.  We tried to clean up the yards, but it was overwhelming.  We have done as much as we can do.  We are tired, we are sad, we are anxious to go home, and we are trying to pack everything into our car and motor home.  When we realized it won't all fit, we decided to leave some of the larger items here.  We will be coming back to visit mom and for the closing when the house sells.  We will fly up and rent a truck and drive it home with the rest of the stuff.  That takes a load off of getting everything into the vehicles.  We would really like an easy, slow drive home with wonderful campground stops along the way.

We have made some wonderful new friends since we have been here.  The people who helped us sell all the contents of the house will always be on our minds and in our prayers.  We both still shake our heads when we remember all they did to make it possible for us to put the house on the market.  A few to mention are Crazy Lady Lynn who worked 8 days in a row,  Mourning Mitchell whose father unexpectedly died during the setting up of the sale, and the Boss Lady Janet O'Neill.  We will ever be thankful for finding you.

So we are now down to the nitty gritty.  We will see Mom tomorrow, Peter's family tomorrow after noon as niece Alyssa graduates from Quinnipiac University, brother Thomas Monday evening and brother Bill and Sooz Tuesday evening.  Then back on the Road Home from the "Andover Adventure"

We have had some difficult lows and some great  highs.  We have cried and laughed.  We know that many of you have kept us in your thoughts and prayers, and we thank all of you who have been praying for us. This has been a journey, that I promised my daughters, they would never have to take.  We all need to think about our future as we grow older.  We don't need to save everything.  Give it away or throw it away.  Save your children from having to make decisions as to what should be saved and what is trash.

So as I leave my Mom in an Assisted Living Home, that she is beginning to realize is the final step, I ask for prayers for her that she may understand why she is where she is, and that she can enjoy the rest of her life . I love you Mom.