Home

Home-One afternoon, while I was resting in bed, I was idly wondering what I
would write for my next blog. The word that popped into my mind was "Home".
My response to the Holy Spirit was that He was going to let me know what to
write about. The thought came to me to write about all the homes that I have
lived in. I have no idea why but here goes.

The first home that I lived in was an old farm house. That was my home until
I was 11. The main features of this home were no electricity or indoor
plumbing. Which, obviously, meant few, if any, of the amenities that we now
take for granted. Instead of flipping on a light switch, if we wanted light
it meant lighting kerosene lamps. Mom did all her baking on a wood stove,
not at all like today. At first, we didn't even have a refrigerator.
Eventually, though, we got a propane one. Of course, there was no tv, though
we did have a battery-powered radio. As much as I can remember, though, a
lot of my time was spent outside. For sleeping, I shared a double bed with
the sister who is 2 years older than me. Another sister shared the same
room, though she had her own bed. I do remember the mice. Being as it was an
old house and it was in the country, mice in the house was a constant
problem. Now, the thought kind of grosses me out but, when I was a kid, they
didn't bother me.

When I was 11, we moved to Medicine Hat and into a rambling old house. I
still remember what a treat it was to have electricity and an indoor toilet
that flushed. One big excitement for us kids was getting a tv, even though
it was black and white. And we could put lights on our Christmas tree!
Again, I shared the double bed with my sister but, this time, my other
sister had her own room upstairs. Once she left home, I absconded it! That
old house had so many interesting nooks and crannies. When I was 16, my
father passed away suddenly. I know that my mother kept the big old house
for some years after but, eventually, we moved to a much smaller house. By
then, my 3 older sisters had left home and I was away at university much of
the time. After we moved, they tore down that big, old house and put up an
apartment. Which I always thought was rather sad.

Once I came to Cold Lake to teach school, I lived in several places. The
first couple of years, I still considered Medicine Hat my home and just
rented a place in Cold Lake during the school year. Then I got married. The
first year, we just lived in one of the places that I had been renting. The
next year, we bought a basic sort of house where we lived for the following
2 or 3 years. But, then, we decided to build our own house so we sold the
house we had. Trouble is, we needed to live somewhere until the house was
built. Because my husband did a lot of the work himself, it took some time
to build. In the meantime, we lived in a couple of places. First, we lived a
house that we rented from friends until they sold it. After that, we moved
into a fourplex until we were able to move into the house we built. That is
where we were living at the time of the stroke.

The first couple of years after the stroke, I seem to have bounced around
from hospital to hospital. First, I was in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in
Edmonton from July until November, then they sent me back to Cold Lake until
the following April, then to the Glenrose Hospital in Edmonton where I got
pneumonia So I went back to the Royal Alexandra. Finally, they sent me back
to Cold Lake for good. After a stint in the main part of the hospital, I was
placed in Long-term Care where I have been ever since. People often refer to
Long-term Care as my home but I have never thought of it that way. I prefer
to think of it as my "temporary abode".

However, for a born-again Christian, no matter where we live on this earth,
they are all just temporary abodes. Our true home is in heaven with the
Lord. The Bible gives glimpses of what heaven is like and there are plenty
of books written by people who have died and gone to heaven and what they
saw. I have even had my own little heaven experience but none of us will
really know what it is like until we are there for good. What a day that
will be!