Michele: Good morning Dee Dee. [She is heading into her room and, I thought, towards her closet.] Are you planning to get dressed now?
Dee Dee: No, I'm going to get a drink. My throat is really dry. Did you know that I built this house? [referring to our house]
Michele: Really?
Dee Dee: Yes, I own this entire block and all the houses on it. It will all be yours someday, so start looking around for a house that you like.
Michele: Well, I like this house.
Dee Dee: Oh, this one? Well, okay. They will all be yours. You see, I worked all the time when I graduated from high school, and Harry had his severance pay from the army, so we had plenty of money to buy this block and build all these houses. It was a nice start for a young couple.
[A brief interlude of ten minutes, in which she gets dressed and I type the first half of this post. Then I re-enter her room.]
Dee Dee: So you didn't know I built this house, huh?
Michele: No, I didn't. I thought you built the house on Forestate.
Dee Dee: No, Forestate was when I was in high school. That was a looong time ago.
Michele: Well, I thought you got the house on Forestate when my mom was in high school.
Dee Dee: No, that was this house, that we're in now. Forestate was when I was in high school. My brother was in high school there too.
So, this is a somewhat surprising discussion in which I realize, at least for this moment, my grandma can't distinguish the house that Brian and I bought last year from the house that she built with Papa and lived in for 40 years.
The upside of this realization, I suppose, is that our house clearly feels like home to her, and at this point, that's what is most important.
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Just to make sure: Grandma never owned more than one house at a time ever, did she? And did she ever build a house? There's a lot I don't know about her, so I wouldn't be too surprised if some of the above were true.
ReplyDeleteFor those not in the know, the house on Forestate was the house that the family is currently sifting through, and they moved there when Michele's Mom was in high school. I don't know where they lived before that.
I don't believe they ever owned a whole block of houses, no. :)
ReplyDeletePart 3 of the conversation follows:
As I walk into the kitchen, Dee Dee says to me, "I just can't believe you didn't know I built this house!" At which point, sensing that this conversation will last all day, I gently explain to her that we are in MY house, that Brian and I just bought when we moved to St. Louis last year.
She agrees with me. "Oh, that's right. Well, the other house on Forestate is yours too. You should go through it and see which furnishings you like so it will be just how you and Brian like."
I thanked her, and that was the end of the conversation. It hasn't come up again so far today.