Legacies

Legacies. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

My wife and I lived 22 years in my current house.
She died a little over two yeas ago.

(April 20th, 2014.) (Photo by Bobbalew.)

My wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her dearly.
She and I designed this house. An architect drew it up, and a contractor built it for us.
Our intent was to ease advancing age. Everything is on one floor, even the laundry and freezer. I rarely have to go down to the basement.
I also don’t have to climb stairs to get to my bedroom. It’s on the same floor.
The doors are all 36-inch; wide enough to pass a wheelchair, although I’m not in one yet.
The house is also super-insulated. Foot-thick exterior walls filled with fiberglass insulation.
Our goal was to reduce heating-costs. Our furnace is small enough for the average 1,200 square-foot house, although I think I’m 1,952 square-feet.
I also don’t have to turn on my whole-house air-conditioning until late June.
Over those 22 years my wife planted any number of things throughout our gigantic lawn.
Our house is on a retired cornfield. We let a lot of it reforest, but at least 2+ acres is grass.
I don’t know as what’s pictured is one of my wife’s transplants.
I know the bleeding-hearts next to our shed are. Those bleeding-hearts won’t flower for a while. I think I blogged them last year, although I thought they were something else.
I decided to walk my dog around our property last night (Saturday, April 19th, 2014), instead of to a small town park up the road.
My left knee aches. It seems to have worsened with advancing age; that is, as everything else got weaker.
I can do property-walks off-leash. My wife and I had a gigantic five-foot chain-link fence installed around our property so I could. It cost $16,000!
It keeps my dog safely out of the highway: NY State Route 65.
As I hobbled around my property, I came upon the daffodils pictured.
As I said, I don’t know as my wife planted ‘em, but I’m sure she nurtured ‘em.
I started crying.
Legacies like this are all over my property.
Under my bedroom are hostas my wife planted.
Every time she pointed them out, I’d say “Hasta-la-Vista, Baby!”

• My current dog is “Scarlett” (two “Ts,” as in Scarlett O’Hara), a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s almost nine, and is my sixth Irish-Setter, a high-energy dog. (A “rescue Irish Setter” is an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. [Scarlett was from a failed backyard breeder.] By getting a rescue-dog, we avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Scarlett isn't bad. She’s my fourth rescue.)