I was searching for something to write about this week, something with a bit of substance to perhaps start a little thought that might hesitate like a feather in a slight breeze, stopping to tickle a sleepy notion within your head a bit then move on. I came up dry. All I could think of was some random scramble of words from Margaret Wise Brown, “Goodnight moon Goodnight stars Goodnight air Good night noises everywhere” and wonder if I read that little book to all of my children. Perhaps I was subconsciously anticipating the lunar eclipse and this was its manifestation, who knows. Either way, as beautiful as the cosmic thought was, it wasn’t anything to build five hundred words around.

Lately, all of my subject matter comes from my yard. That’s what I enjoy and usually I am passionate about sharing some natural discovery with you but it is July and hot so nothing much to report except complaints about the heat, humidity and mosquitoes, all of which you already know. So, while dismissing Miss Brown’s delightful nocturnal thoughts and trying to formulate this column, I pointlessly clicked on FB and there was a picture and a post from Callie Borne. I was drawn in. Callie and her family are moving to Cottonport and her post was about a discovery she and Joey made while recently packing. They came across something written beneath the wooden stairs in their house. It was an inscription from the previous owners in 1969, somewhat of a fortunate time capsule. I describe it as “fortunate” because leaving a home after nearly 10 years and piles of memories is a difficult thing and this discovery somehow made it a little less difficult, it closed the circle for her.  It seems, two girls, ages 13 and 16, had made a quick handwritten note of a particular day nearly 50 years ago. The younger girl was excited about a new dining room set being delivered this day in December and had, in her own hand, made, what I believe to be, a secret record of it on the underside of a wooden stairstep. The older girl, on that same day, Dec. 13, 1969, wrote about Christmas decorations being taken from the staircase closet, I suppose some sort of pre-Christmas ritual that, obviously, meant a lot to her, enough to “eternally” etch into wood. Callie was positively affected by this “message” and decided to add to the staircase narrative with the names and dates of birth of her children and a documentation of when the Borne family lived in this house.

I was so moved by this gesture, this secret manifestation of a well-loved home, a home that sheltered, thus far, two loving families for a finite amount of years. The families have gone but within  the walls, under the stairs and upon the land are all of the moments that happened and all of the effort that was put forth to beguilingly transform brick and mortar into love and life. This little story helped me to understand these layers our lives build, these happy hellos and sometimes sad good byes that are necessary to weave the “fabric of our lives” and to make our unique fabric colorful and interesting.

Farewell and best wishes to the Bornes. I am certain you will continue to thrive as a strong and wonderful family “up North.. New Iberia will miss you but we are so happy to have had you … and that house on Loreauville Road is even more special now, for it has acquired another layer of love.

PAM SHENSKY is a wife, mom to five and blogs at www.pamshensky.com.