Lucy Long

We’re closing on our old house near Winchester, and I want to give a shout-out to our realtor, Karen O’Hare, who worked her tail off to help us sell it while patiently walking us through that process. We’re also grateful for Cindy Greenya for skillfully managing the renters the past four years.

We lived there for seven years, and lately I’ve been so focused on the painting and fixing and other house-selling stuff that it’s just now hitting me how many memories it holds. This is where Steve and I had our biggest cookouts, back before our circle of friends had kids. This is where we brought home our babies, who jumpy-jumped in the kitchen and played in the sandbox and kiddie pool. This is where our dog spent countless hours fetching tennis balls and patrolling for birds, and then curled up in a ball when the sun went down. There’s a lilac and a hydrangea off the screened porch, and bluebells from my mom's garden.

Dad and I drank dozens of cups of coffee and worked on numerous projects while the kids napped, and I also love the memories of long walks with Mom and making holiday meals with her in the kitchen. I was so grateful to live close to them again for a time.

That was also a tough chapter because of Steve's work schedule and the kids being so little, and I remember how excited I was to move to another country after that, largely because it meant he could be home for dinner with us every night.

I’m thankful to still have the family that formed all those memories. This is just a house! Now we hand the keys to a new family and hope they love the neighborhood as much as we did. Goodbye, Lucy Long.