My Aunt Betty was the last of the Smiths to live at 201 Kinzie Avenue in Savannah, the de facto family home for many decades. Betty lived there from age two until her death at age 89 in 2014.
When she died, the task of dealing with decades of accumulated family stuff fell to me, my sister Betty, and my brother Lee. In addition to day-to-day furnishings, the house was awash with family mementos and keepsakes — our grandparents' wedding gifts, albums of newspaper clippings about the Smith brothers in WWII, boxes of cards, letters, and family photos.
The project was especially daunting because we three lived in metro Atlanta. We spent numerous weekends at 201 Kinzie, and a year passed before the house was ready to sell.
But in truth, the project was fascinating. So much history, so many memories. The surprises and revelations.
From the beginning, I fully intended to steal the house numbers over the front door — the weathered brass 201 on the green cedar siding. Those numbers were there all my life.
But then I found a sealed envelope in the back of a kitchen drawer. Written on the envelope in Aunt Betty's handwriting was Original house numbers, 1926. Inside were three beautiful old brass numbers, 2, 0, and 1.
The numbers over the front door, then, were mere replacements. And now the originals were mine. I knew precisely what I wanted to do with them.
That afternoon, I removed one green shingle from a hidden spot under the back steps. When I got home a few days later, I mounted the house numbers to the shingle and added a hanging hook.
The shingle has been on display in my front foyer ever since.
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