When I was a teenager our dad started building a small house by the lake on the edge of our property.
At first she said it was a fishing shack, then she said it would be a guest house, she inspected it for years, constantly making it greater, constantly improving it, then i could think the fact that our family didn’t really need a house at all, however it seemed pressing to Dad.
I think she number one toiling with her hands to being around her family. In order to spend more time with him I started helping Dad with the cabin, most notably with installing the brick fireplace, plus later, the water boiler… The people I was with and I spent an entire Summer building that brick fireplace, plus it is a Summer I will never forget, but dad was a large fan of going slow, brick by brick, making every detail perfect, plus I came to see that it wasn’t about the fireplace at all, with so several aspects of her life being out of her control, Dad found peace plus harmony in doing things care about building a fireplace. She took her time to make it perfect, because she knew nothing else in life would ever be perfect! Maybe I’m getting a little maudlin, however to this unquestionably day I constantly think of Dad when I see a fireplace. It was a much easier task when she installed the warm water heater. Dad was still toiling on the fishing shack when she passed away, although I can’t imagine she would have wanted to go any other way.