My Homage to Deep Creek Lane...

20 Years in one place is a long time. My parents have lived on Deep Creek Lane since November, 1990. I grew up there...played basketball out front with all the neighbor kids...trick or treated from house to house...danced in the front yard...walked up and down the street talking with my 'girls' who lived next door and across the street from me...played in the flooded streets every summer during hurricane season...could look out my front door and see Grandma & Grandpa Doran's motor home parked out front during the summer...swam MILLIONS of MILES in the pool in the backyard...stared at the breathtaking Christmas tree my parents put up every year...celebrated my Sweet 16 with a great outdoor party on the new deck in the backyard with all my friends...secretly crushed on the neighbor boy, but would DIE if he ever knew...got ready for Homecomings and Proms...Graduated from high school and college...celebrated my parents 25th Anniversary with a special Mass in the family room...got dressed in my wedding gown in my old bedroom...and celebrated the pre-baptism Mass with Father Paul in our screen porch for my beautiful daughter, Caitlin. So many AMAZING memories. But, through my tears, I realize, that these memories are memories I will take with me and will never fade.

This was just a house...a house where my parents raised my sister and I. They did their job...the raising is done. Mom and Dad are off to a new adventure. A new adventure of simplifying their life, enjoying their grandkids and their time together. They no longer have to keep up yardwork or a pool, or a house much too large for the two of them. So, Mom and Dad...to a job well done. Thank you for giving us an amazing home for the past 20 years on Deep Creek Lane. Now, enjoy living in your new home, with less maintenance, so that you can spend more time traveling, seeing your daughter in Nebraska and spoiling your grandkids rotten!

I will always look back fondly on the memories at Deep Creek Lane...and look forward to gathering new memories on this journey, we call life...

'...I'll take nothing but the memories...from the house that built me...'