Glad to be here!!

Our trip to the beach was SO lovely, and brought resolution to a lot of sadness. It's so long to explain, but, despite all the rain, my husband and I had a lovely trip. Very relaxing, and what can be more serene than staring at the ocean and feeding sea gulls?!

I can't remember what all I told you before we went (and now that I'm in the process of posting, I'm too lazy to try to find my older post), but my sister and brother-in-law (both deceased) used to own the unit right next to the one we rented, in a small building of only six unit. Well, five; the owner at the end opposite to my sister's bought both the top and bottom units, and turned his property into a duplex! When Jim and I walked into the one we rented, it was like stepping back in time, but in a more current way. The condo was decorated in a manner very similar to my sister's tastes. It had recently been completed renovated, so the kitchen was gorgeous, and they'd made some other changes to get rid of a more dated look, but otherwise it felt like being "home" at my sister's condo.

To give a few highlights about what happened, without boring you with the details of how it all came about, we met the current owners of my sister's condo, just as she and her friends were on their way out on Sunday morning. (We'd arrived on Saturday, and hadn't seen any activity over there until Saturday night when some lights came on.) I was still in my nightie and robe when I realized that they were all leaving, but I ran out onto our balcony anyway, and called to her, and this is when I she confirmed that she (Valerie) was the owner, not a guest of the owner. Anyway, I introduced myself as the sister of a former owner of their condo, and we chatted for a little while. Valerie explained that she and her husband have owned the condo for ten years, and that another family (the Hendersons) had bought it from my brother-in-law, after my sister passed away. I told her how much ALL of us had always loved that condo, and mentioned that my sister had kept a little growth chart of all the children; hers, mine, and any friends of her sons who visited. It was just a piece of plywood that was on the inside of a utility closet, and when my brother-in-law was closing up the place before its sale, I had asked one of his grown sons (from his first marriage) to retrieve the chart for me. He, of course, bitched that he wasn't going to trouble himself to bring back a stupid piece of plywood (he doesn't have any children so he didn't understand), so that was that. I knew that those memories would be the first thing replaced or painted over by the new owners. I was telling this to Valerie when she just looked at me and said, "it's still here"...

I gasped.

I ran inside our condo to get dressed, and Jim went running over to Valerie's/my sister's unit (at her invitation) to see if the chart could be removed. Bless her heart! She was going to give it to us right then and there to take home!! Unfortunately, the wood was very dry, and it was nailed to the door, so there was no way to remove it without damaging it. Jim ran back to our unit (you have to go down Valerie's private stairs, around the front of the building, and back up a separate set of stairs to where we were staying) to get his camera while Valerie and I explored the chart. I found my two nephews, our two oldest kids, and the names of various friends. I don't know why my youngest wasn't on there, but maybe she refused to cooperate with being marked!

Here's the thing: Valerie had always been under the impression that the chart had been created by the Hendersons, because when the Hendersons bought the condo from my bother-in-law, they wrote THE HENDERSONS, 1995 at the top of the chart! (This was actually rather scary, because it made Jim and me realize that we hadn't been to Ocean City in fifteen years rather than the maybe-ten that we had previously thought!) Valerie assumed that all the names on the chart belonged to the Hendersons, but was now really interested to know that it was actually my sister who had begun the tradition, so it was TWO previous owners, not just one. I, in turn, was very touched to know that the Hendersons had embraced my sister's idea, and had carried on the tradition rather than taking the chart down. I joked to Valerie that if she and her husband ever decide to sell their condo, they either need to tell the new owners to mark on the chart too, or to sell Jim and me the door!! Valerie and her husband had never added anything from their own family to the growth chart because she'd always sort of held it as being sacred property of the Hendersons, but knowing now that it had belonged to my sister before that, she was inspired to participate in the tradition of the chart too!

By now, Jim was back and taking pictures. They're a little difficult to read, but at least we have a representation of the children's names. And I no longer feel that my sister's growth chart was abandoned and defiled; on the contrary, it was protected and even honored! That meant the world to me...

On Wednesday, my sister sent us a gorgeous double rainbow, and held it in place for us long enough for Jim to get a beautiful picture of it. How rare is it for a rainbow to last long enough for someone to retrieve a camera and then get a clear image!? I had the deep sense that the rainbow's message was "I'm so glad that you're finally back at my beloved beach again, and are finding such peace there. Enjoy! Here's a little gift in celebration and to let you know that I'm fine..."

Jim and I didn't mind that we had a week of rainy weather, but on our last night there, Jim remarked that his only disappointment was in not seeing all the dolphins that we could normally count on seeing. We speculated that it might have been because it was later in the season, or maybe because of the way that the weather had affected the ocean itself. During our rainy week, Jim had taken lots of pictures, and had turned one of them into a quick sketch to leave as a little gift to the owners of the condo, in appreciation of our stay there. (I slid it under the door of the locked owner's closet in the master bedroom." The sketch was based on the fact that the summer season was most definitely over; we watched as the lifeguards rested their stands on the sand and then retrieved each one from the beach, to be stored for the winter.

Saturday, of course, was the most perfectly gorgeous day we'd seen since arriving! Wouldn't you just know it... We'd gotten permission to stay an extra couple of hours since the unit wasn't being immediately rented after our departure. It was a day of clear blue skies, bright white clouds, and the most perfect temperature one could wish for. Jim and I walked out to the beach one last time, and then returned to the condo to finish packing up. About an hour before it was time to go, Jim called me oout to the balcony; the dolphins had arrived to bid us goodbye, and I have no doubt that my sister sent them too, just as she had that rainbow!

Here are a couple of pictures: the growth chart (sorry that you won't be able to see it very well), an EARLIER version of Jim's sketch (he did a second one for the owners that included the building itself in the background, but he hasn't provided me with a copy of the picture that he took of that one yet), a couple of hungry gulls, the ocean, and our treasured rainbow:





-- Edited by Moore ideas on Friday 29th of October 2010 09:42:20 AM