Houses for Sale

Driving through the neighborhood I saw whole lot of empty houses. "Houses for sale", it said. I thought how wonderful it would be if my adult children would buy those houses and live close to me.

I can see it now. I could walk over to their houses to babysit when they need to run out to the grocery. They could come over to let Chester out when Chester needs a break.

My son and his partner could get a house. My son and his girlfriend and her three children could get a house. My other son and his girlfriend and their baby could get a house. Another son in New Mexico with his girlfriend and her two children ages six and two could live nearby. My daughter and her partner could live nearby. Another grown daughter and her four dogs will be  nearby, and a grown son in Arizona could come move nearby. It would be is if we had just immigrated from a foreign country and were seeking help from each other to populate the new world.

It does remind me of when I was a child. My aunt lived on Dexter place and we came from Germany to find a new home in America. Soon afterwards we had bought a house a block away. We would walk to each other's house to play and cousins were always close. Sunday dinners and get-togethers were with family.

Soon thereafter grandmother and grandfather came to America and their house was directly behind my aunt Barbara's house. It was on Fairfax Avenue, and my uncle cut a gate into his fence so we could go directly through the backyard to visit Opa and Oma.


Later my Uncle came to Cincinnati with his wife and two small children.  They lived in a house a block down Dexter Avenue.  We played with them talking in German and our families spent holidays together talking in German.  We even had other German friends that were our extended family in our neighborhood.  Then my Father's brother came to live with us for a while, and the family continued to grow in America.

Today there are families that live close together in communities that come from other countries to support each other, for language and cultural reasons.
  It is impossible that my family would move near me today.  But it sure is a great dream!