Perfectly Unexpected - Finished

Chapter Seventeen - Memories

As I pulled into my parent's house, holding a box of my father's belongings from the hospital on my lap. Their house hadn't changed since I was a child. They still lived in the same house they brought me home to as a baby. I remembered things as vividly as they were happening right in front of me.

I remembered jumping off of the wooden porch into my dad's hands. I remembered the time I jumped a few moments too soon, just before he was ready, and fell onto my arm which had me in a cast for several months.

I remembered swinging in the wooden porch swing with my mom, watching the birds land on the bird feeders or in the birdbath. I remembered dragging buckets of water onto the porch and washing play pots and pans in it.

I remembered playing in the front yard with my dad as a kid, and following him around doing yard work. I would ride my bike while he mowed the lawn or hand him tools as he fixed our cars in the driveway. I remembered gardening with my mom – a gardening set with gloves like hers had once been my most treasured birthday gift. I remembered exploring the woods behind our house, sitting high up on my dad's shoulders to avoid thorn bushes as we looked at different types of trees and plants.

I got out of the car and walked up the familiar wooden stairs. I got to the door and opened it. The inside of the house still looked similar with very few changes since my childhood. Updated furniture was in the same place as the old ones.

The round kitchen table held a lot of memories for me. Even as a small child, I would sit at the table in the mornings and eat breakfast with my dad before he went to work. Eventually, I would do my homework at the table while my mom cooked dinner. As a teenager, one of my favorite things to do was sit at the table with my parents and talk for a portion of the afternoon.

I set the box of my dad's belongings on the kitchen table. I walked out into the living room, a step down from the kitchen. It looked the same. A sofa and a chair sat facing a box TV. An old wooden desk was in the corner with a rickety desk chair. The chair had been the same for most of my life, and still had all the stains and rips. The big boxy computer had been swapped for a laptop. As a child, I would wake up early to watch cartoons while I ate toast for breakfast. I would play video games on our old computer.

Beyond the living room, a sun room sat onlooking the pool. Old patio furniture, faded from the sun, was dusty and unused. I remembered sitting with my friends in middle and high school on the sun porch, drinking sodas after a day of swimming. We would dry off and put on pajamas before sitting around the fire pit to make hot dogs and smores.

I walked up the rickety stairs. I didn't have much of a teenage rebellion phase, but the one time I thought I might sneak out to see my boyfriend, I was immediately caught as a result of my carelessness on my noisy stairs.

The upstairs was the same. My parents bedroom to the left, a bathroom in the middle, and my bedroom to the right. The only thing that had changed in my bedroom from my teenage years was making the swap from a twin-sized bed with purple bedding, to a queen-sized bed with white bedding. My white dresser still stayed in it's same spot, covered in stickers from bands I liked, no longer housing my clothing. My vanity was the same, just cleared now of the belongings I had taken with me when I moved.

Daniel and I stayed a week at my mother's house. We helped her prepare for the funeral and receive family. It was emotional for all of us, and I leaned on Daniel to get me through. My mom and I cleaned out my father's belongings and moved them to storage. She didn't want to see them all of the time for now. We spent a lot of time crying and talking about our memories of my dad. Daniel was perfect and supportive for both of us. Family came and went, bringing food and love.

The funeral was tough. My father had always wanted to be cremated, and we did honor his wishes. I was uncomfortable, and stood most of the day. I was crying a lot and felt sore and dizzy.

Saying goodbye to my mom was hard. There were more tears and a lot more hugging. She made me promise to take care of myself. We made plans for her to fly out when the baby was born. 

Life would not ever be the same.