So hard to say good-bye

So this has really been a hard post for me to write, but it is one I've been working towards for a while now. I found out a few weeks ago that the Beach House has been sold. Escrow is apparently supposed to close at the end of the month. Just to give you a little background...

My great-grandfather built that house about 60 or 70 years ago. My grandmother grew up there, and my mom grew up going there during the summer and other family vacations. I grew up going there at least once, sometimes twice, a year. We had family reunions there every year, sometimes with 30 or 40 people crammed into that house, but we made it work. We would go to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz every year to ride the Giant Dipper and the merry-go-round, and maybe eat some funnel cake. As the cousins got older, we would spend a day there, riding all the rides and wandering around. We would boogy-board and go for night swims, walk to the cement ship together, and explore the museum. A major school-clothes shopping trip happened at the Gilroy Outlets every year. But mostly our family would gather together and just hang out. We bonded, and listened to stories from my mom and her sibling about their growing up years, and what my grandparents were like. I never met them, so being at the Beach House was a bit of a connection for us.

I was fortunate enough to have had several trips to the Beach House with my friends over the years. Kevin was able to experience a Beach House weekend with the family this past summer, so he has an idea of what I mean whenever I talk about the Beach House.

I'll be honest, it breaks my heart that the Beach House is gone. I grew up going there, and was looking forward to taking my own children there, someday. But now it will only be a memory and a good story to share with them. For those of you who know me well, I don't cry. But I bawled like a baby when I heard the news that the house had been sold. It has been something of a grieving process for me. I feel like I've lost a member of the family. I know every nook and cranny of that house, and feel like I grew up there. It is such a part of my life, that I don't know what I will do without it. I'm grateful for the time I did have it, and for all that it has represented to our family. It's just really hard to say good-bye.