A VERY SPECIAL SCRAPBOOK
I’ve always loved making scrapbooks—but not in the lovely and complicated style so many crafters now make them. One of my favorite scrapbooks ever is this one Heather (with help from Patrick and other family and friends) created for me at Christmas, 2000, to celebrate the twenty years we’d called 159 King George Way our home.
On each page she placed some photos and typed memories from so many people who’d lived in or visited our home. She and Patrick both wrote beautiful summaries of why our house was home to us. Patrick said what he cherished most was “how welcome all our friends are here”—this place “with its familiar smells, sights and sounds (NPR)…the setting for so much joy in our lives!” Heather wrote of “the many gatherings and special times you wove into our lives, with the house as the most beautiful backdrop.”
I was amazed at how many people they got to respond with personal memories of our home! Our missionary friend Gary Seithel wrote from England, “You’ve welcomed all my family old and new there on special occasions, fed our children, made us feel appreciated and loved.” Our pastor Rick Perrin wrote of “one special time…a typically delicious meal, just us and Sally alone; uninterrupted joys of talking, laughing, giving thanks…A gift to us, a peek at God’s grace!”
It was wonderful to have so many of Heather and Patrick’s friends visit over the years, and many of them sent written memories. Pam and David spent the last night of their honeymoon as my guest. Patrick called to say they were heading back to Orlando and running short of money for the last night. I was thrilled to have them stop by although we’d never met, and they wrote, “What a perfect cap on the trip of our lives!” Other seminary friends Dan and Elise stopped by overnight once when Patrick was visiting. We’d not met before but they wrote, “When we left, we knew that we were members of the family…” Heather brought her friend Tracy from Nashville for a first visit at our home. She wrote about coming down to breakfast “to a beautifully set table, coffee, and scrumptious lemon-poppy seed pancakes with warm honey drizzled on them” and said, “I will always have fond memories of the blue house on King George Way…” What a gift it is to read through these pages and look at photos—celebrating two decades in that wonderful house.
Within another year, I would begin a new chapter as I transitioned to Nashville. After living with John and Kay for over a year, in December, 2002, I moved into my Crieve Hall home. It’s almost time for another “twenty years at home” scrapbook!
Seeing a story 