Goodbye, Island Home!

It was a difficult trip to the island this last time. I spent a couple of days helping Dad and Mary clean out the house and I found all kinds of interesting things including my mother's wedding dress, which I had never laid eyes on before, and my baby book. I took some things that I wanted, like the wedding dress and the Children's Literary Classics that I loved reading when I was young, some things that my mother told me to look out for before she died including a box of her own childhood letters and photos and my grandmother's Hummel figurines, and some things that I just wanted to save from the dump, mainly photos and all of my dad's short stories. My father is an excellent writer.
That van-ola of ours came in handy pretty quick. There was no way that I was going to get all my shower gifts and all the stuff from the house back to Milwaukee. Jason and the dogs drove out for a few days vacation and then we all trekked home in the vanola.
My last morning on the island was strange one. I fully expect that my dad will sell the house before I return to Maine, probably next summer. So, even though it will still be my island, it will be different. I spent the last morning visiting some of my old haunts, like the cemetery at the bottom of the hill where I spent many hours napping amid the gravestones (oldest c.1690), telling ghost stories with friends, and engaging in various other teenage pursuits.

brackett cemetery