My most favorite aunt was diagnosed with ALS Feb 2022 and sadly it is progressing quickly. Jennifer told me that I needed to come in January so I could talk with Aunt Jeanne while she could still talk. So I booked a trip and Randi and Richelle joined in on the fun!
Jennifer told me that the Sacramento airport was the airport I needed to fly into and I told her that I didn't care what we did at all while we were there I just wanted to go to my grandparents old stomping grounds since I hadn't been back since we buried Grandma Mason in January 2012. Nothing had changed!! It was unbelievable! It still smelled like grandma's house on the outside (yes, there is a smell - maybe the fig tree smell?), the house looked the exact same minus the red truck parked in front of it, I would have given anything to have been able to walk in that front door and see my grandparents sitting in their recliners waiting to greet me. Then we took a picture infront of the Barlin street signed (named after my mom and her twin sister). Then we went on the walk which included walking past 2 houses that my great grandpa built, going on the freeway overpass and then running up the freeway underpass and racing Jennifer even though back in the day it would have included racing my siblings. Then we headed up the road to Vic's icecream, ate lunch and ate ice cream cones.
Randi and Richelle wanted to find Grandma and Grandpa Willyerd's old Sacramento house. After calling Uncle Richard and my parents, they all gave us little pieces to the puzzle, but not quite an exact address. Randi did some map searching and came up with a street. My mom emailed me a picture from 40 years ago and thought that might help - we laughed at her. Then she got the last laugh - that picture 100% helped us identify the house. We even confirmed it with the stranger in the garage after we talked with her and she confirmed that a mormon family had previously owned it and that the dad was a doctor. She gave us a tour of the backyard and it was exactly as Richelle remembered it. She then even pulled her car in the garage so we could get a picture in front of her house. She was a very kind and helpful lady and we loved going down memory lane! Then my mom called us again and begged us to go back to her old house that she lived in for 18 years...so we indulged her and did!
Willyerd house: 4139 Los Coches Way, Sacramento, CA
grandma's house she grew up in: 3720 Lily St, Sacramento, CA 95838
Mason's house: 1108 26th Ave, Sacramento, CA
Finally we headed back to Jennifer's house! We spent the rest of the weekend, hanging out, talking, organizing the pantry, making sea glass art till 1am, going to church, taking Titan on walks, chatting with Jon and Sondra for a little bit, Kristen for a little bit, but mostly just making sure we were catching up with Aunt Jeanne. I even got to give her a foot massage, blow dry her hair, sit next to her at church and of course take home some wooden bowls from "Armando" aka Uncle Eric.
It was a sad goodbye - I hate goodbyes!! I need to go back!! But so grateful for my family for letting me escape and running out there! I am so blessed with a big family and mostly with all these cousins who are my best friends! Aunt Jeanne told me how good I was for Jennifer but it goes both ways! So grateful for parents who drove us 12 hours every year - sometimes twice to Sacramento to visit my grandparents and then always stopping at Uncle Eric and Aunt Jeanne's house too! Memories I hope to last a lifetime!
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