As I mentioned yesterday, we spent Mothers Day at Mr M's family home with his parents, his sister, her husband and two kids and Mr M's brother carefully sorting through and packaging up their entire lives. Thirty odd years of birthday parties, school projects, finger paintings, school reports, photos, camping trip maps, tricycles, abandoned teddy bears and that weird shaped grater that everyone loves. I helped carefully wrap prized possessions in newspaper, in between teaching my new nephew Ethan the finer points of making a good cup of coffee, and marvelled at the glorious environment Mr M got to grow up in - a little red brick cottage in an idyllic location, full of gorgeous antiques, organic cooking smells, a clawfoot bath he used to splash in, little cutout stain glass windows in the old walls, flowers fresh from the garden always on the kitchen table, warm open fires and love beyond measure. Home.
You might remember we held our engagement party at Dumerilli, it is just the most lovely spot - bordered by state forest on three sides and with creek frontage at the bottom of the garden. It's the only home Mr M has ever known - the home he was brought home to from the hospital, where he learnt how to ride a bike and bake terrible chocolate cakes, where he scribbled on the slate floors in permanent marker and blamed it on his imaginary friend, where he grew and became the wonderful man he is now. The man I love, and Dumerilli is such a huge part of him. I love this place just because of that (and many more reasons).
The actual moving day isn't until June, but boy is there a lot of stuff a whole family can accumulate over a lifetime. Understandable. It makes me wonder what Brindabella will be like in forty years time! I think we have a lot of 'stuff' now?! Mr M's parents are on the move down the coast so it's not all doom and gloom - holiday beach shack anyone?
Have your parents moved out of your childhood home? Did you have to pack up your entire life in a short period of time or did you take it with you when you moved out of home?
Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella
Playing point + shoot with Lou
5 comments:
It looks like a beautiful house and was obviously a wonderful home.
I also think it was lovely that you all helped go through everything.
Take care.
What a great collage of photos.
My parents still live on the farm I grew up on and a lot of my things are still packed away down the shed. Will be very sad when it comes time to say goodbye.
what lovely photos and a pretty collage. you can feel the warmth and love. sadly we lost the entire contents of our childhood home to a fire...photos, my hsc artworks, all of those bits and pieces you love and collect when you are young. and yes you always have memories but it never feels quite the same when you can't flick through the pile of aged family albums. i have 2 small children now and my camera rarely stops. and those photos are saved in many places! best wishes for the move and happy memories always.
This is such a cool collage, Em. You're just so darn creative! My parents STILL live in the home they built when I was 8 and I've taken as much of my childhood nostalgia-y stuff as mum would allow. One of the best bit about going home is flicking through the old photo albums!
My parents moved out of our childhood home whilst I was overseas for a year! Granted they didn't sell and I ended up living there by myself for six years but try living in a place that everyone else still thinks of as home and it's a littel hard to put your own stamp on it.
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