Legacy

My family is selling my grandpa's house. They close on it today. It's not a normal house. My grandpa was an architect. He designed this huge strange house and built it in Van Buren, Arkansas. It's all concrete and glass. Very Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.

My grandpa died in 1999, leaving my grandma in this huge strange house all by herself. I honestly never thought they would sell it.

But here we are. I haven't been to the house in many many years (due to this military life). But it breaks my heart that I cant go back to it, to visit my grandpa's house.

My grandmother is understandably having a hard time letting go. But as my mother told her, the house isn't Carl's legacy, as she pointed to the youngest grandchild, 17 month old Dara. Carl wouldn't care about the house. It's just a house. It's not the home it once was. Carl would care about his 10 grand kids and their futures. As we do with most architects, we personalize the houses they design, that they put all this effort into. But as my mother said, it's just a house. One design from his 40 years of being an architect. It's not him. And holding on to it wont solve anything. It wont bring Carl back, or bring us any closer to him. It's a sad day for the family. But instead of titling this post sad day, I titled it Legacy. Because that's the big picture I want to remember today. It's not the material possessions that matter. It's family. It's all about family. My grandpa started something BIG that has trickled down to all of us gradkids. I need to live my life to make him proud. I need to be his captain, always.