I am your house. I watched as your parents carried you through me for the first time. I watched as you grew up, running in and out until you wore a path through the living room. You would play outside for hours, dashing outside to play games with the girl next door, who you liked immensely. Even if you were tired, you’d always turn right back around to play for a little longer.
I watched you run up to your room after a long, grueling day at school. You’d stand at the top step, striking poses like the superheroes from your favorite comics. When you saw the girl next door coming over, you’d slide down the banister to get to the front door quicker. I watched as you and her sat on the bottom step, talking and laughing for hours. You gradually started to like her, until she became your first crush.
I watched as you breathed on my windowpanes to draw pictures. You would press your face up against the glass to stare at the clouds as it rained, and you smiled when you saw a rainbow. I watched as you became obsessed with golf for a week, and as you accidentally hit a ball through one of my windows and into another neighbor’s cup of tea. I watched as you admired the girl next door, completely besotted with her ethereal beauty. In your eyes, she was like an angel that had fallen from Heaven.
I watched as that girl started to come over more often. You and she fell in love, becoming obsessed with each other. I watched as you worked up the courage to ask her out on a first date, and I also watched the many dates that followed. I watched as you searched online for a ring to buy her, and I saw the face that you made when you saw the price of the one you picked out. I watched as you got down on one knee to propose to her, and as tears of happiness flooded her eyes when she said yes.
I watched as you brought home your new wife from the church. I watched you carry her through my front door, you in the tuxedo your dad bought you and she in a magnificent wedding gown. I watched as you and her sat and watched the sun set every day, and as the baby in your wife’s belly grew, until one day you carried a beautiful baby girl through my front door. I watched as you three stared at the sunset, enjoying the sublime shades of gold, pink and amber.
I watched you and your wife play with your daughter. I watched as you three ran around the trees, playing tag in the sultry summer air. I watched you push your daughter on the swing, and watched you lay in the soft, warm grass as you watched the stars. I watched your daughter’s first birthday. I saw how happy the three of you were. While I watched your daughter grow faster and stronger, I also watched you start to become weaker. I watched you become skinnier and frailer, and I watched as your wife became worried for you. As you came home from the hospital with your cancer diagnosis, I watched you hold your wife, telling her that it would be okay. However, that wasn’t the case.
You started to become very frail, until you could barely stand. Since you couldn’t play anymore, your daughter sat and watched movies with you until she fell asleep in your arms. I watched as every breath you took became labored, and as your heart struggled to beat. As your wife held tightly to your hand, I watched as the tears rolled down her cheeks while you told her that it would be alright. I watched as you told her your last words, which were, “I love you.”
I watched as your wife and daughter cried. Their tears fell onto my floorboards, next to where you lay, and they kept falling until neither of them could cry anymore. Your wife wiped away your daughter’s tears, repeating your last words to her for the rest of the night.
After your death, it was like time had completely stopped for your family. Your wife and daughter had many sleepless nights, and even more tear-filled days. Your wife knew that they had to move on, but she couldn’t bear the thought of living in a world without you. Her mind started to spiral like a top, only her mind just kept spinning faster. The world felt warm and soft while you were still there, but now it felt colder than the arctic. Your wife thought her life was over, until your daughter decided to bring her outside for the first time since you died.
The yard was overgrown with weeds and grass. It looked as if your wife and daughter lived in a jungle. As they waded through the yard, your wife looked up to the most stunning sunset she had ever seen. It was filled with alluring shades of orange and pink, with the clouds shining a vibrant yellow. It made the tears that formed in your wife’s eyes look like drops of fire. As she gazed upon this, she decided that she wouldn’t dwell on the past any longer. After all, that is what you wanted.
While I’m physically made of boards and nails, I’m filled with your memories and experiences. I watched your whole life. From your very first days on this earth to your very last, I was there. Through thrilling and troubled times, stormy and sunny days, I was there. Although I may have started as a house, it was through your life that I became a home.
