Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: The Family Home (05/29/08)
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TITLE: In the Shop | Previous Challenge Entry
By Holly Jensen
06/05/08 -
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It was a fifteen by thirty foot room with seventeen foot ceilings. There was no wood-burning stove, but there was a propane heater and a small space heater. Janet, age fourteen, her mother and father, as well as her brother, were to live in this one room. As it turned out, Janet’s older brother set up temporary quarters in what would be his bed room. He was at an age where having his space was imperative. This meant that the room was a bit less cramped than it might have been.
This journey was to be a memorable one for the whole family. It would be marked by times like the night when the four of them gathered around a table in the gutted family room to have hot dogs and marshmallows cooked in the fire place. It would be marked by the times when Janet, who was blind, would have to hold on to a frost-covered rope to make certain she could get to the house where she would ready herself for school in the morning. There would also be nights spent listening to audio books with her parents. And it would be marked by the coldest winter Janet could remember, when it got down to as low as twenty-two degrees and even snowed!
There were hard times for Janet. She was a teenager. And like her brother, she wanted her privacy. She wanted quiet so that her writing could flow. She wanted privacy so she could talk to her friends. But in retrospect, those needs would pale in comparison with the sweetness of that six-month period in her life.
It was a time of togetherness that Janet would forever treasure. It was this togetherness and some wonderful shared experiences that made the cold, and at times stifling closeness, worth it. In later years, these times took on a sense of nostalgia for the whole family. Why was it that they treasured this time so much, seeing that most of what they owned was still packed away and there was so much that they could complain of? Though this world might see only the hardships, Janet’s family would understand that a thing of great value was gained through this experience. They grew together as a family, which cannot be measured in dollars and cents. In these later years, Janet’s family understood that though this time was notable for many things, it was most of all, a time marked by love.
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