Today's walk

I walked about two miles today, which is more than usual, but considering that I'll have my right leg amputated in just thirteen days I might as well put it to use while it's still there.
My destination was the house I spent my first ten years in. Does anyone forget that? Maybe, if the years were unhappy and chaotic, but that wasn't the case with me. The woman who now owns it was friendly with my parents and had offered to let me visit ages ago. I figured now is the time.
She is one of the very few people these days who has the money it would take to make big changes in a house but hasn't done so. I think many who make such changes do so out of boredom and to show off their wealth. Not all, but many. 
There were details I remembered well from my childhood and they are still there. Ledges on the stairways, the banisters, the tile in the upstairs bathroom, the back porch, the flag stones leading to the front door, the front door itself. All unchanged and they didn't, as you so often hear people say, seem small to me. She and her husband have kids, three sons, in fact, as my parents did, and while just one of them still lives at home, one is still in college and the other hasn't completely moved out so the house still has their stuff in it and shows their energy in their marks. 

I felt funny about asking to see the old place for the first time in nearly fifty years, but I'm glad I did. I'm also glad I walked there instead of drove.