Goodbye old house

T and I visited 2919 Cane Field Drive in Sugar Land, TX for the last time today. On the way back home we drove up HW71 with a van packed with the last remnants of my mom's "necessary" possessions--pots and pans clanging, boxes of photos a beloved plant or two. But, we didn't have the most important item along: Mom.

She'll come up a couple of more days later after the closing date, but there's essentially nothing left in that childhood home of mine to warrant ever going back. It's cleaned out. All the memoirs and useful items taken out. Mom seems eager to leave as well. The homemade curtains left in the kitchen have very little sentimental value. It's just sweeping and cleaning rooms now. All the personal affects that would spurn any sort of memory, good or bad, are simply gone at this point.



It was near the corner of Planter's and Cane Field that the 5 bedroom 3 1/2 bath red brick abode sat amongst other nearly identical houses in the boring and snotty master planned community we lived in. I can't complain although my first few years living in Sugar Land were pure hell for me. I just didn't fit in with the affluent blue blooded ass holes in my school with their designer clothing and selfish ways. Still, I look back at the sacrifices my parents made to move there to ensure my brother and I got the best education possible. My high school education at WP Clement was especially robust (how many high schools offer Differential Equations and American Sign Language, for instance) and full of opportunities only the well off could experience. For this, I'm grateful.

We put in the pool a couple of years after we moved in. This I never understood since as you know, I hate swimming. So does my mom. My brother, I'm not sure. My dad, however, would do laps every now and then, but had no concept of water chemistry, so he'd throw in fistfuls of powdered chlorine without much thought causing the pool water to be so chemically infused that your eyes would turn red just by thinking about wanting to swim. My dad also made some bizarre attempts at landscaping throughout our stay. There's a massive rose bush growing in the middle of the side lot. Just there. With a rubber plant next to it. Tell me how that makes any sense?

I still recall the two allergy inducing live oaks out front as mere twigs...now they're full fledged trees. The house served as the residence for my mom and dad for the past 21 years. My brother mainly grew up in that neighborhood. I think we moved there when I was 10. It's the house I moved out of to go to college. It's the house my dad died in this past March.

So, without any reservations, the last Chang resident of 2919 Cane Field Drive will be driving up HW 71 with a small suitcase of clothing and my dad's ashes in the front passenger seat...on her way to her new home and her the beginning of her new life to Austin, TX. I know mom's excited and so are we.