In the late 1960s, a couple with 2 young children bought their first house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

There were small trees in the back yard that grew and grew…

The trees shaded the house and the garden.  The children played beneath the trees, and the mother and father planted flowers in the garden so that they could sit outside and enjoy their color and fragrance.

The children grew, too, fed at the kitchen table.

They grew tall and strong…

…and enjoyed their own place to dream and read and learn.

As time went on, the children grew to adults and moved away from the house.  The couple lived there still, and grew older together.  Then the father died, and the mother lived there alone.  Finally, she decided to sell the little home to another young family with small children…and a baby on the way.  So she and her grown-up son said ‘good-bye’ to the place together.

Thank you, little house, for sheltering this family.  Thank you, trees and garden, for living and growing with them.  May you continue to shelter and live and grow with the new family, in peace.