A Walk Down Memory Lane

One of my dear cousins passed from this life last week and my sister and I drove to Stilwell, Oklahoma on Friday to attend her funeral.  This cousin is on my dad's side of the family and it was wonderful seeing other family members that we don't get to see that often.  This cousin was particularly close to my sister and I.  She was a wonderful school teacher but a homemaker at heart.  We have wonderful memories of their farm and the strawberry festivals that we attended as children in Stilwell, Oklahoma. 

After attending the service and saying our goodbyes, I asked my sister if she would like to go home by way of the lake.  Of course she said, "yes."   Lake Tenkiller is about 30 miles west of Stilwell.  I grew up going to that lake.  When I was about 8 or 9 years old I have a vivid memory of the day we found this piece of property.  My dad purchased it that day for $300.00.  The first picture is the view from our cabin that we enjoyed for many years. 

Eastern Oklahoma is beautiful with rolling hills and lots of black jack and oak trees.  In the spring, there is always a beautiful display of red bud and dog wood trees.   It's been a long time since I've been to this part of the state and I had forgotten how beautiful it is.  They have had lots of rain this spring and the lake was up and the shades of green were breath taking.  I could feel the bitter sweetness of this place filling up my heart.  A large portion of my life is filled with such happy memories with dear family and friends at this place that to go back and see it all once again was harder than I realized.  We visited the places where we would dock our boat and swim and fish.  When we got to the cabin and I saw that view, I felt like Anne of Green Gables.  I just wanted to sit for a while and "drink in" all the memories.  My heart was so heavy as I smelled the woods, remembered all the laughter, the skiing, the cliff diving, getting up at dawn and going fishing with my dad, the summer lunches spread out over the rocks and devoured, nothing ever tasted that good we were so hungry.  These were my vacations!  I never traveled to other states with my parents but that was ok, I had a wonderful time doing this year after year.

My dad built our cabin.  It was nothing like the picture you see above.  After my dad passed, my mom sold the cabin.  It is owned now by a lawyer from Tulsa.  He left the foundation and the walls and rebuilt the inside and changed the windows on the front deck.  My mom's iris are still growing in the front yard in front of the brick retaining wall.

As I have gotten older, I have embrace change and realized that life is about change but as we drove away there was a space in my heart that was saying I wish things could always stay the same and that the people we love would never have to die.