Cassel Road

The last 2 weeks I was in PA at my Aunt & Uncle's house, just before they sold it, I remember driving to Bubba's several times. Bubba's was a restaurant that used to serve really great hamburgers. They are still in business, but everything has changed and the buggers are now terrible.

I used to take the back way to get there, which was the shortest way, but was also very scenic.

The one road that I turned on was called Cassel Road. It went through a hollow and was a little tricky to navigate with all the turns.

In PA there were moments in time that were just amazing. Where you knew that what you were witnessing was something truly great. Where time almost stood still and you knew that God wanted you to see this and to appreciate all that it meant.

Cassel Road was one of those places and the last 2 weeks were one of those times. Coming back, on the left hand side of the road, just after the hollow, was a farm house with a big tree in front.

The farm house was not any different from all the others, but was different was the old man sitting in the chair under the tree.

He was there every day, just looking out over his farm. He looked too old and frail to have been the one that did all the work. My guess is that his family had taken over running the farm.

There was something about seeing him, so much expressed in that moment. His family could have put him in a nursing home, like so many other families have done, but they didn't.

He knew his time was growing short, but the pride he must have felt and the joy of looking out over his farm each day knowing what he had built. It must have given him great satisfaction.

A life well lived. All he had done and all he had given to his family, and his family continued to honor him for his hard work by letting him spend his last days where it meant the most to him.

I'll never know that feeling. What days I have left will be spent in this welfare apartment, or worse. I loved PA as much as that old man. Seeing it sold killed a part of me. It never meant as much to my Aunt or Uncle as it did to me. It was my home. The only home I've ever had. My life is filled with too much heartache.