These days, HGTV nourishes
hopes, dreams, needs, anxieties, and passions about home buying.
Forty years ago, this year, I bought my home.
It had to be done. While confidently attached to a career opportunity
in St. Louis, Missouri my employer said “we want you in New York City”. It was
a good thing, a promotion to Corporate, a career dream achieved.
I had to relocate, find a home in another community, move far away from friends and family.
I was thrilled. I was scared.
The challenge was mine. Newly teenaged daughter and nearly teen son
were counting on me. They would leave the home they had known since they were babies.
 |
| Several years before becoming their old neighborhood |
Excerpt from "Black Star Girl" . . . ‘In
Richmond Heights, our modest brick ranch with white picket-fenced yard was put
on the market – a For Sale sign on the front lawn. ‘
‘I made several trips to New Jersey to look for a new
house. Other locations had been considered, New York, any of the five boroughs,
even Connecticut. New Jersey won when I learned Route 80 west from New Jersey was essentially a direct shot to my family home on the Pennsylvania/Ohio state line.’
The property selected was, as I
write in ”Black Star Girl”, ‘a well-maintained two story older building’. I was impressed with features, new for us. There was a larger kitchen, fabulous garage
and master bedroom with en suite bathroom. I’ve now learned, through online data, the house
was built in 1910.
My daughter reminds me of how
she cried and cried seeing the picture of what would be their new home. It was so different. My answer was “it’s a nice house, you’ll love
it”. They did.
The seller was a gracious
woman. Many years later I met her daughter. A letter came asking to visit the home she had loved since childhood - if she and her husband
were in the area. That happened and we are friends, linked
through ‘our’ house’, and Social Media. I
love that. I love the house.
My award winning memoir, "Black Star Girl" is available through major book sellers. Also purchase online through both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is e-book available for most e-readers at a fabulous price.. Find Black History woven into an inspiring life story. 