Our house

My mom, in front of our house, maybe around 1990

In an ad for Kamala Harris for president, she mentions how important home ownership is to people and that her mother was finally able to buy their first home when she was a teenager.

I was 11 years old when my family bought our first home. Before that we lived in rental places and sometimes with my grandparents. We had been living with my grandparents after coming back from 5 years in Bermuda, and I think my grandparents helped them pay for the house.

My stster and I hated it ... it was so not as nice as my grandparents house ...

Our house was built in the 30s, had no sewer hook-up, was very small, had asbestos siding (eeeeek!). But it had a big yard and it was within walking distaance of grandma and grandpa.

Little did I know that I would be co-owner of that house with my sister when I was old and gray (my siser lives in her own house with her husband). If my mom had not left the house to us when she died, I would probably now be in a county subsidized apartment, never having enough money to buy a home.

Even though the house is rotting away (it's like 90 years old now!), it is so nice to have a yard, trees, a place for all the cats to stay and be relarively safe, a place where no one can ever make me leave. And there are lots of memories here of all my loved ones. I feel so lucky to have a home :)