Funny how a place can become so meaningful because of the many memories enclosed in its walls.
Here is where I got to know my future husband and fell in love with him. Here is where we chatted over the washing up long after the rest of our friends had gone home. Here is where we first kissed. Here is where he proposed. Here is where we came home to three days after we promised to spend our lives together.
Here is where we met for church every week for two years. Here is where we sang and prayed and shared life’s ups and downs with an incredible group of friends. Here is where we came back to after spending time with refugees on hunger strike. Here is where we wrestled with confusing and challenging bible passages. Here is where we welcomed and said goodbye to so many friends.
Here is where we invited friends and family from the UK, Denmark, the USA, Germany. Here is where we invited over forty friends and family the morning after our wedding celebration for brunch. Here is where we hosted dinner parties, Pancake Day celebrations, American Thanksgivings, Jane Austen film nights. Here is where I had deep and meaningful conversations with some of the most incredible women I have ever met.
Here is where I learnt to use an electric sander. Here is where we realised I am not very good at drilling holes in wood. Here is where we decorated and moved furniture around and read Danish design magazines together. Here is where I made hundreds of cupcakes and muffins and cookies. Here is where I put far too much chilli on the sweet potato fries and killed my friends’ taste buds for the next month.
Here is where I wondered and dreamed and cried over those dreams. Here is where I made the decision to resign for my job and pursue something else. Here is where I came home to after my last day of work and worried if I had made the right decision. Here is where I sat studying and trying to relearn the self discipline needed for self-guided studies.
Here is where we drank thousands of glasses of wine together, talking and dreaming. Here is where we planned our move to Luxembourg. Here is where we cleaned and organised and donated. Here is where we threw our leaving party. Here is where we said good bye.
Here is where I laughed and cried and smiled and dreamed and got mad and danced and sang and slept and worried and hoped.
This place has meant so much to me. It has been a good home to us. I love the flat itself, but it is the memories it holds of friendships and love and moments that made me braver and stronger and happier. Now we move on to the next home, but we take all those treasured moments and relationships with us. They have moulded us and transformed us and are now as much a part of us as the blood that runs through our veins. Those remembrances that brought the tears running down my cheeks as we stood in empty rooms one last time, before putting on our coats, switching off the light and locking the door behind us. We’ll carry you with us wherever we go.
