FAMILY AND CAPE COD
CROSS COUNTRY TO COLORADO
BACK TO VIRGINIA
My Mother was a Brit and the youngest of four; two girls, Sybil and Winifred, and the two boys John and Harold. They were brought up in Rhode Island. But every summer they all went to Harwichport on Cape Cod. It bordered the Harwichport Inlet and the house they rented was only about a quarter mile from the inlet. Both boys had jobs at the pier and the girls played on the five (5) acre property where the grey shuttered, white trim house was located. I remember it had crank-out windows. The girls could bicycle to the closest beach. The town of Harwich had a population at the time of approximately under 1500 people. Most were residents. Fishing, clamming, crabbing, cohogging, and lobstering were main occupations for the locals who lived there year round. Employment was seasonal so some locals had to travel to the upper Cape to find winter jobs. Fish shacks were everywhere on the Cape. The population doubled during the summers. It was a place where the family could all be together and the house they rented slept seven. It had a barn, a pasture and a huge stable/garage suitable for my grandfather to have a couple horses, chickens, and he had a welding and blacksmithing business on the property. His name was Fletcher. I have memories of him when I visited with my Mother from the Midwest, and in in the evenings he would play his violin while my grandmother played the piano. We all sang. Eventually my grandparents bought the property. It remained in private ownership by our family until 2010. It was then sold to a local Harwich family. During my college years and throughout my single adult years I went there every summer, as I lived in Boston. My cousins and all the family would meet there every chance they could. My mothers sister Winnifred and her husband who was a descendent of the builder of the Nausett Lighthouse, lived year round in the house until they both aged to the point, that they could not take care of it any more. It needed repairs and was time to let it finally go. Today only three cousins of the Baxter family remain and still visit the Cape. Jacqueline lives in Welfleet and Wendy in Elmira, NY and myself in Virginia. When we do meet up at the cape we meet in Brewster at Oceans Edge. I stay in Brewster at the Candleberry Inn. But the fact remains that our love of the Cape, was the hook, line, and sinker that for years kept our family going to gather there. The memories are forever burned in my soul.
The last time I visited was after I closed my store. It is a place where I can go all by myself and I still feel like I am going home to my family. I always go to all the familiar haunts and make sure I always have time to find places to eat where I can get a couple dozen steamers, fried clams and lobster. And I visit the Cape Cod National Seashore, the Naucett lighthouse, and the Harwich Inlet. I spend at least one day at the beach in Chatham.
I love that little town of Harwich the most and even after all these years, it changes little. Old family ownership has preserved the laid back simple lifestyle that we all enjoyed. Newer and larger vacation homes have come, but the character of the main drag and the pier remain very much unchanged. It remains a very special and simple place.
After leaving the Cape in the middle of September I drove back to Virginia and once again packed up my car from my friend Cozetta’s house and headed to Colorado to visit my family. I stopped in Chicago to visit a first cousin, then on to Iowa to visit my cousin on the family farm, on my Dads side of the family, and then to my college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
My family journey then took me to Omaha to visit two other first cousins and spent a couple days. Then on to Boulder CO to visit my son and daughter-in-law and my two grandchildren, that I had hardly spent any time with, since for seven years I was running my store and could not take time off to go see them. They came to see me once at my store. I stayed two months with them, leading up to just before Thanksgiving. Visiting my family had been a long time coming, but it did not matter. We reconnected and it’s still one of my fondest memories in my life.
I had thought that Jack might miss me while I was away. But he had I guess, decided that I was off living my own life, so I never heard from him at all while I was in Colorado.
My daughter-in-law encouraged me to stay but my heart was tugging in me to return back home. At this point I didn’t really have a home to return too. I had moved out of my townhouse during my tenure at the shop, so finding an apt and a new job when I returned, took about three months, so I stayed at my daughters temporarily. Once I found an apt I I ended up managing a garden center just a few blocks away from my house. I also got involved in managing and running estate sales and so the two combined employments, kept me busy, and life continued. My time at the garden center had given me the idea that I should once again pursue running my gardening business back in my own community where I had lived and worked before.
For over one year I made attempts to try and contact Jack. He flat out told me he wanted me out of his life. I did not believe him. Mostly because I knew better. But he persisted in avoiding me for a long, long time. I never gave up or forgot him. He had times where he tried hard to get rid of me, and then there were times when in my gut, I just knew he still cared for me. I was confused and I had decided I had to figure out why he behaved one way one day, and another way on other days. I was in a quandary. He was a huge challenge. But I persisted and never forgot him or gave up.
I had to do what I had to do, and so I began more brainstorming on ramping up my gardening business again. I was caught in the middle of the COVID epidemic that caused me to loose my job so I had to stretch my income and resources in order to make it through a very difficult time in my life. All the while still trying to connect with Jack.
I began contacting former gardening clients and made appointments. Placed my Gardening Ad in the community newsletter immediately and began gardening once again full time. My first spring/summer went well. Word got around that I was back in “the hood.” And the rest is history. All the “ups” and “downs” I had encountered had taught me that my faith in God and in myself would never come to an end. I was being watched and my heavenly shepherd was leading me. I had endured. I had persevered and I would realize through my visits to houses where I actually “dug in the dirt” that this was where I belonged. Gardening once again was for me, the closest I had ever come to filling my soul with work that I truly loved, and here is where I was closest to my creator in heaven. Nature, creatures, green grasses, trees, flowers, bushes, gardens, and working in the outdoors were my hearts reward. I worked hard and I began building the business back up once again.
Running my store, closing, going away to reconnect with family, returning to have to climb my way back to the occupation I truly loved doing, was the journey where I ended up finding all my joy. My “calling.” My Lord and Savior led me, and he knew where I belonged all along. Heaven came down to earth and became my home.