After not having lived in the cottage on High Street in Campbellsville for 9 months, special memories of our life there resurfaced and tugged at my heart strings. This is bound to happen as my heart is of the tender kind with many raw emotions and unhealthy attachments to shimmering, shiny and savory moments of life. But that house is special in many ways physically and spiritually. In Campbellsville and Taylor County, there is not another house like it. While having been updated both inside and outside, its architecture is unique and charming in a retro cottage style. It recedes well away from the road and is kept hidden further by a gigantic maple tree. That tree is the second largest maple tree in the area. Therefore, whenever we hung out together on the front porch, we would feel safe and not exposed to traffic or prying eyes.

Over the six years of living there, that house became a sacred space for us owing to it witnessing the many struggling and suffering moments, emotionally and spiritually, of each of us and together. We all grew up there in a sense, not just the children. From that house, we traveled to many far-flung places along the Eastern seaboard in the United States and to Vietnam. Each time we came back there from our trips, that house became more like a home to our hearts. Until early last year when we realized we had outgrown this cozy cottage and needed to move on the next stage of our life together. We realized that, with Jacob turning 18 and James turning 12, we were reaching the end of an era. Our children would no longer be physiologically and psychologically small. James was becoming increasingly social with his peers and Jacob significantly moodier and spiritually searching. We were all struggling against being restrained in the provincial mentality of a small rural community. Life flows like a river and we all must move on to where it takes us.

The Edward Jones David had joined a little over a decade ago had already changed its essence to become a bloated, more corrupt, greedy and ineffective organization. We no longer recognized the conscientious, service-oriented and human-focused Edward Jones of old in their post-Covid hierarchy and realities. Edward Jones’ current managing partners see their main function as turning exclusively to one another and away from their employees and customers. Their policies and technologies no longer make any sense, and every change they make is only for the legal protection and financial benefits of the general partners. As a result, the workers in the field were increasingly pressured into more ethically dubious practice. David could thus no longer choose to stay with a decayed character under such distressing circumstances.

Still, it was hard to say goodbye to the home we lived in together for the longest amount of time in the history of our family. We were able to enjoy our creature comforts in all seasons there. We greatly enjoyed sitting, talking and reading by the fire in the living room. We enjoyed growing and tending to flowers and house plants there. We enjoyed feeding and watching birds in the privacy of the shaded front porch. We enjoyed playing soccer and football as well as making bonfires in the backyard. Within those seeing and listening walls, we enjoyed many moments eating, reading, dancing, playing board games, watching British shows, planning for Jacob’s future and laughing together. There were of course also painful and tearful moments filled with angry, bitter words and conflicting emotions. I remember having felt truly wretched there during some prolonged sickness periods. That home kept us together through all the ups and downs of those six years. What a feat for such a small cottage! We owe our development and happiness to those seeing and listening walls.

So, bye bye sweet home…