A Present-Day Experience Of Days-Gone-By

This is an article that my mother wrote this past week.
I thought it might be worth sharing with you.
You can also read more of her weekly articles at her website (click here)
I miss my grandparents dearly, and this article didn't help...thanks, Mom. (HaHa!)

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A Present-Day Experience of Days-Gone-By
by Dr. Patti Amsden


The passing of my parents has greatly altered my life.  Everyday circumstances frequently remind me that they are not around.  A family gathering, an unexpected blessing, an emotional burden, or an attained goal:  these are the things about which I would phone my folks.  They were always on that first to call list.  They were always on that first to support list.  I miss that.  I miss them.


To heighten my awareness of their absence, I am cleaning out the family homestead.  Mom and Dad purchased their house over 65 years ago.  It was my only home until I married.  It was the home to which I brought my children to visit their grandparents.  Every Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and many Sunday afternoons the family gathered at that house, that safe harbor, that sanctuary of hospitality and love.  Now the contents must be dispersed to family members, sold at yard sales, given to charitable institutions, or assigned to the trash.


The work of dismantling the home place is tedious.  The emotions attached to the work run the gamut.  One box of pictures will recall an event with all the joy and laughter the snapshots evoke.  A piece of clothing will stir a memory of Mom’s favorite fashion style or Dad’s signature good taste.  A crocheted handkerchief will reveal the handiwork of Mom’s grandmother and the metal of honor will testify to the faithful citizenship of Dad’s grandfather.  Every work-day is a present-day experience of days-gone-by.


Soon the closets will be bare, the shelves will be empty.  There will be no more pictures on the walls or treasures in the cabinets.  The home will be sold.  The keys to the house will belong to another family.  Within this next short season, the physical evidence of my parents’ life will be dispersed or discarded.  Home life as it had been in days-gone-by on Main Street will never be again.


Although the actual home with all its furnishings and all its temporal aesthetics may pass, the psychological, spiritual, and emotional housing that my parents erected inside of me, my siblings, and the extended family can not so easily be dismantled.  No one can erase the images in our hearts of love, acceptance, or encouragement.  We cannot discharge the sense of honor, integrity, and perseverance that were built into our souls by their words and their lifestyle.  These qualities are not items that can be sold in a yard sale or donated to a charity.


Each day we will still live in the house that Jim and Lela built.  A foundation of faith, support beams of God’s Word, walls of self-discipline, and keepsakes of wisdom belong to that house.  They taught us to view the world through windows of compassion and instructed us to open doors of hospitality to our neighbors.  They insisted that we adorn our house with humility and protect our most treasured assets by sharing them with others.


Yes, within weeks the task of closing up Mom and Dad’s home will be completed.  Yes, within weeks!  Nonetheless, because they were master builders in their own right, our family will never be far from home.  Our past will remain in our present.  Every work-day will be a present-day experience of days-gone-by.