Bittersweet Endings

Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 12:03

My mom gave me some unexpected news last weekend: she and her siblings have decided to sell the family farm.  When Grandpa and then Grandma passed away, instead of selling the farm, they each had a share in it.  My Uncle Brad had never left the farm, first farming with Grandpa, then for Grandma, and finally, taking care of it for the family.  He made the day-to-day decisions, and got the lion's share of the profits; after all, he was the one doing the hard, physical work.  Everyone else got as much beef as they needed, or wanted, and use of the land for recreation.  For the last several years, my uncle has run a hunting preserve on the land, with elk, buffalo, and wild boars, as well as native animals like white-tailed deer and turkey.  He said they had no intention of selling, but one person made an offer, and he turned it down.  When the second, and third offers came, he talked with the others about it, thinking that if they had no plan to sell, and kept receiving offers from different people, maybe it was God's way of saying it's time.  They eventually decided to sell the land.

They close at the end of March, and then Uncle Brad and Aunt Laura have seven months to buy or build a new house before they have to be out.  And really, when I think about it logically, it does make sense to sell.  The siblings agreed that when they start passing it on to us, their children, it would become to difficult and inefficient to make decisions.  There's so much potential for family disagreements when you have so many people wanting different things from the land.  Besides, it solves a lot of immediate difficulties for each of them.  My mom will be able to pay off her house and have a bit to invest for her retirement besides, which means she can quit working at the job she hates, and take the lower-paying job she was offered last month, at a place she will enjoy working.  Two of the uncles have houses that are reaching their limits- settling foundations that will be costly to fix, leaky roofs, etc.  They will both be able to build or buy new.  It's just a little hard to think logically about such things, when your heart wants to cry out to stop!

I know it's just land, that we can't go back to the days when we walked through the fields with Grandma and Grandpa, picking daisies, heading to the ponds to feed the fish, or working cows alongside them.  Picking crabapples for applesauce (I've never found another crabapple tree of that type, though I've searched and searched!), pears, hickory nuts, and walnuts.  We always made a visit to the buckeye trees out on the back 40 every fall.  Grandma's perfectly kept strawberry patch and garden have been gone for years.  My aunt, bless her heart, is just not much of a gardener, and the flower beds that Grandma worked so hard on have lost their glory.  But still, it seems like just yesterday we were sitting under the trees, the whole family gathered to clean corn, or butcher chickens.  I know I'll always carry the memories of ice skating on the pond, mushroom hunting, sledding of Oak Hill.  Somehow, though, it seems as though selling the farm will cut the final strings, that the drifting apart that has already begun with my cousins, will multiply.

We used to gather at the farm every Sunday, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends.  I miss those happy hours.  I guess this just makes me realize how much I still miss Grandpa and Grandma.

Untitled Comment

Posted by rildapeel1 on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 03:35 - Link

Change is so hard to accept although when you encourage it to happen it is handled better. It does make sense to do what needs done now so all can reap what their parents worked and struggled to leave. You have such memories to treasure. Not knowing but one of my grandparents really effected how I see things I am sure. At least your tie with them never ends when you live eternity in heaven.
Sending a [[[[[ HUG ]]]]] from them. Lovingly,rilda *U*