The House in Alberta

Memories of my grandmother's house bring immediate feelings of longing and home sickness.

The house was set far from the road down a dirt lane. We always parked in the back and entered the house through the back porch and into my grandmother's kitchen. Off of that back porch were the entrances to Tine and Anna's study, Anna's bathroom, the back hall entry to the main house and the door into my grandmother's kitchen.

The hall entry opened into a wide hall, probably 10 to 12 feet wide, that ran the length of the home straight to the front door. About four feet in from the back door, the stairs led up to the second floor. Along the South side were doors leading into Tine and Anna's parlor and master bedroom. On the North side were entries into my grandmother's large living room and a small door under the stairs leading to the cellar.

On the second floor were six to seven bedrooms depending on if you were counting before or after the remodel when Dot joined two of the bedrooms on the South side to make a very large master bedroom and if you counted the small laundry room that was my uncle Tommy's bedroom for a while, located on the East end. All the bedrooms shared one large bathroom at the West end of the hall.

A fragrance graced each room; the smell of bacon in the kitchen, Irish Spring soap in the bathroom, the musty, moldy smell of the cellar, my grandfather's pipe smoke in the living room and grandmother's powdered perfumed presence in whatever room she was in.