Family Cement

Last year we had the hard task of selling the house where I grew up on Baldwin Lake. My family moved there in 1964, and my Dad and Mom took the small 2 bedroom lake cottage and eventually ended up with the 4 bedroom walkout basement on the lake. My Dad, Bill Leers passed away in 1994, and we lost my Mom, Madeline in 2006. My Moms wish was that we sell the home and divide the profits between her 9 surviving children. The family that bought our house had a vision to do an extensive remodel and still keep the original structure of the house pretty much the same. When they were doing this, they had to remove the cement patio that was poured in 1972. Our Dad was pretty darn proud of what he had accomplished and signed his, Moms, and the kids names remaining at home in the cement patio the day he poured it, along with the date. I knew this was going to be removed with the renovations, and went over and took some pictures before the remodeling began. Several months went by and the house was looking great. One winter day in 2007 Tuff and I were driving around Elkhart and pulled into a parking lot where there were some old bricks, and pieces of limestone set up as benches for sale. As we drove into the back of the lot we spotted some broken pieces of cement, and Tuff said "That's your Moms' cement" I thought he was crazy, but sure enough there was a large piece with all of our names on it!! Needless to say, we now have that chunk of my childhood here at our house, and have it set up as a table in our garden area. I believe it was meant to be here with us. We also discovered the iron spiral staircase that was in the house in the same parking lot, and have that also. Although I am not sure yet how we will use it, you can be sure to see it in the future on our blog. To see a few more pictures of our family cement, click here.