A Great Surprise Part 2 7/26/2008 by Dani

Tags -- DaniUpdate

I did not mean to publish the last post but I’ll let it stand.

I was standing there very tired and I heard an electric snap – like when Pops or someone turns on our big spotlight at the cabin – it sounds like a lot of power was just turned on.

And then the tears started to form. Mom was holding me and Pops was holding us both. Mom did not know what was being done either – Pops told her something entirely different to let her in on the surprise but what we saw was amazing.

Pops, with Grannie’s help then and now, I am sure, had refurbished her house – the house in my fondest memories and where mom had learned the meaning of hard work, family and good friends.

He had even found Christmas decorations that reminded me of how Grannie would decorate.

Mom had stayed until she met my father and left with him – the biggest mistake she had ever made. And Grannie never let her forget it. I don’t know why I thought of that.

A trooper said he was amazed – the house looked exactly how it did the first time he saw it sixty years ago.

He had come out to arrest Grandpa for selling the recipe but that is not part of this story.

I noticed there were many. Many lights and Pops said he had hired a photographer to record this moment and he had setup all these lights.

When I told him it was beautiful he talked to the photographer and he will work with an electrician to make the lights permanent.

As I walked to the house I saw a red wagon on the sidewalk – it was my Christmas present when I was eight years old – I told Grannie I didn’t like it because it did not have big tires like my friends’ wagons.

Grannie had put it away in the barn for a girl that knew how to appreciate gifts. He had sent there for over fourteen years covered with old grain sacks.

Pops had a body shop fix the wheel and polish it up. It looked just like it had when I first got it.

The mom noticed the lights on in the house. Pops had hired Cap to refinish all the antiques Grannie had – he had also installed a new modern kitchen and when we opened the kitchen door it smelled just like it had on Christmas day – Grannie had given Pops her secrets before she died.

Mom had to sit on the floor outside her old room. Somehow Cap had reproduced her trundle bed and her wardrobe. He had also found a match for the rug in the middle of the room. The details were unbelievable.

Then she let out a cry and opened double doors against one wall and she pulled down her favorite bed – she called it a Murphy Bed – it pulls out of the wall. It is really cool.

We roamed and found the old kitchen with the wood/coal stove that Grannie refused to give up – I was surprised to find it hot. Pops said he had to have a new firebox made for it but otherwise it was original.

Then we found the new ‘addition’ – a brand new kitchen and laundry room – a hallway to a garage and pool. Pops had also installed double hung windows in the main house and a heat pump and fireplaces in many rooms.

All rooms hooked to the center of the house where a large chimney stood. That’s how they got heat. The house is four stories and fifteen rooms. Very seldom were more then five rooms in use except at the holidays. Pops and Cap had filled every room with antiques – it reminded me of a museum except this one was livable.

Every place Mom and I looked we would find something we remembered.

Grandpa’s Grandfather had built this house – he worked for the local lumber/boat yard for many years and they used his house to install new display windows and doors.

One thing we kids liked was our playroom also known at the window/door room. It had 22 doors and 34 windows in it. It was very big and had a porch around three walls and very high ceilings.

In the summer time we would open all the doors and windows and let the insect world and sometimes squirrels in. One evening Grandpa forgot to close it up and he found a deer asleep in the corner. He left it alone until it left on its own.

The crew had rebuilt the room – many doors were newer but there were quite a few old ones. Many of the windows had wavy glass – the old type of glass but we noticed Pops had them put modern storm windows over them to protect them.

Mom and I walked arm in arm to the room we had been dreading – Grannie’s room. We got a surprise. A velvet rope hung across the door and the room looked exactly like it did when Grannie had left – nothing in the room had been touched except to clean it.

Her desk cubbyholes were full of papers. It looked like she was writing something when she fell and the pad and pencil were still there.

Cap came up and said he sealed the room until everything else was done. Grannie was planning on making some changes so that she could sleep her whenever she came to visit.

Instead Cap had some experts clean it and they installed special systems to preserve it and Pops had found the velvet rope at an auction.

Moms slipped under the rope and I followed – she told me she had spent many a night in this bed with her father and mother. She lay down – I joined her – it smelled like peppermint – and it brought back memories.

The place was being treated like a tomb – Pops had said Friday at midnight would be a memorial to Grannie and that’s the way they treated it.

Mom and I fell asleep on Grannie’s bed. I came to for a bit when momtoo draped blankets over us.

We woke fresh. Pops had dropped off a pot of hot toddies and blueberry biscuits and homemade honey butter.

There were few people in the house. Me and Mom, momtoo, Red and her daughters – the daughters had fallen asleep in Mom’s room so pops left them there and put Red in my room.

I asked where he slept and he said the couch and Cap confirmed. He had gone to check on the boat and when Red did not come down he came up to check on them. He sat on Pops when he decided to sleep in the house.

All the other guests had taken the bus back to the nearest town twenty miles away and stayed at a local resort.

They were due here at noon for lunch, birthday cake and home made ice cream then we all would head for the big house for Cindy and Denny’s reception.

At 11:45 a bunch of Grannie’s old friends that could not make it last night arrived. Mom and I took them for a tour and we heard many stories then we had lunch and dessert.

At two Pops decided it was time to head home. As we were walking toward the boat to get our bags – Grannies house sits less then 1,000 feet from the river that flows through the cabin’s back yard.

There is a wooden walkway that Grannie had built so that she would not get muddy. I saw a flowerbed thought it looked familiar – I asked Pops how long it had taken Stubby to do all the planting. Pops wanted to know how I knew – I told him I recognized Skippy’s tracks and the way he plants trees and stamps the dirt around them with his nose.

Pops said he started in April and finished at the beginning of June. When Mom asked him to find her some flowers for the cabin, these had done so well he came here to steal some and replant them.

When I told Mom she cried.

Cap is taking the boat back to the cabin. Red was going to go with her but her daughters begged her with Moms blessing to come to the big house with us.

Pops told the girls they would have to ride on top of the bus. They thought he was serious and were getting ready for it. It was cute.

And then Pops pulled us aside – her had forgotten – he handed us a letter in a very familiar handwriting.

It was Grannie telling us the house belonged to both of us – to make sure it stayed in the family for as long as possible and told us to look behind the fifth brick from the south end in her bedroom’s fireplace. It was her mad money.

Cap and Pops helped us dig the brick out – it had been awhile. We found a bundle wrapped in plastic that looked very new but as Cap pointed out it was very old.

Inside we found money – her mad money – from a lady that would not buy anything unless she had no choice. The lady that bitched because the nursing home charged her $3.00 dollars for a bottle of aspirin she could get for a dollar at Wally world.

Mom made sure no one had seen us and she handed it to Cap and told him to put it in a bank somewhere. Pops said to be careful. We might have to explain how we found it.

Cap said he’d ask the banker at the foot of the valley to store it for us but he would seal it so that he would not know what it was.

Mom told me we would give the family one hell of a Christmas present this year.

We said goodbye to all of Grannie’s friend and neighbors – they wanted to stick around – Cap said he’d help then load everything up.

The farmer across the rode came over to say hi – Pops has him on retainer to keep an eye on the place and mow the grass and keep the pool clean – his grand daughters come out several times a week to clean it and swim.

Red’s daughters wondered who cleaned the pool at the house and Annie wondered who was going to take care of her pool at the apartment. Pool ? Apartment ? What ?

Pops laughed and said he meant to tell me about that. Annie said it could wait and she put Red’s daughters, b and n-b, through very intense interviews – they loved it.

Pops told them that whenever they came to visit they would clean the pool and hot tub and then they could go for a horse ride and a swim.

He asked what they did first with the horses. Clean their hooves then brush them they both said.

He asked what the first thing they needed to do when cleaning the pool or hot tub – they did not know – he said put on swimsuits.

B and n-b are the nicknames Denny and Adam gave them with Pops help – The girls have crushes on Denny and Adam – they are the youngest guys here.

B even slept on Denny’s shoulder during the boat ride up. Red is not sure how she feels about it but Denny apologized – he fell asleep on the boat – he said he would keep their contact to a minimum but the girl is very sneaky. Her mother does not know how she will control her. I have an idea but I need to think on it more.

I found an empty row and started typing – so much to remember and so many happy endings.

We are almost at the big house. One thing keeps coming to mind.

I was having a rough time at college and I wanted to leave but I had no place to go. I was mad at Mom and Pops, Annie and BBs’s mom were mad at me.

I really had no place to go and I decided I would have at least two different places to live when I started working.

With the addition of Grannie’s old place I now have 4 not counting Annie’s or BBs or their parents.

Now is that weird or not.