Puzzle Memories

Whenever I put together a puzzle for the second, third, or whatever time, I find myself down memory lane. Two puzzles I’ve done recently are ones that Dad and I worked on together about 10 or 11 years ago. One was a round, 700-piece of a train scene and the other was 100 pieces of a map of our hometown. I worked on a second train scene like the first one, but that puzzle had never been opened. When I worked on it, I felt like Dad was with me. I’ve been putting these puzzles together in the spare bedroom that was first my brother’s room, then became Dad’s office. For the past 8 years, this room hadn’t been used a lot, until this last year. Sometimes Mom plays the piano in there. I use the exercise bike a lot and started putting together puzzles in that room.

I glued the train puzzles and have them hanging in the hallway with one of Dad’s maps in between. Wherever I go in the house, Dad’s presence is there.