Bray settling in at her new ‘Canary Cottage’
When a change in the health of her husband necessitated that Jean Bray pack up and sell what had been their family home in Cave Spring on Black’s Bluff for more than 20 years, it would have been understandable if finding a silver lining in the situation was almost impossible.
Bray’s husband, Larry Bray, had been experiencing a deterioration in his health, and taking care of him by herself was more than she could do. He was transferred to a permanent nursing facility in Rome and she needed a place to live where she was close enough to visit him frequently.
Bray didn’t exactly find a silver lining. Instead, she found the perfect spot of yellow sunshine. Or maybe it’s more like the color of a canary.
In March 2017, and with the help of her children, at the age of 83 Bray made the move to a small yellow house in the West Rome’s Grove Park community.
One step inside and guests are greeted by pictures of birds, artwork and perfectly placed furniture.
But instead of being stuffy or so formal that a guest may be afraid to sit down or touch anything, the house begs visitors to take a deep breath and relax.
Bray calls it “Canary Cottage.”
“It was neat with the white trim and the yellow — it’s a cottage and it’s yellow,” Bray said. “I named it before I walked in the door.”
A friend from her quilting group told her about the home, which was about to go on the market. Bray looked at it as well as at other homes and neighborhoods. In the end, she settled on the house recommended by her neighbor, who also happened to live across the street.
The neighborhood was built in the mid to late 1950s. Bray’s house actually belonged to the architect of all of the homes in the neighborhood. An arrangement of bricks makes up her walkway to the front door. Decades ago her living room had been expanded to add a fireplace and petite built-in book cases. The back of the house was expanded about the same time as the living room to include a third bedroom and a second bathroom. Everything in the house is one level. There is a stacked brick fence behind the house that marks the back edge of her property.
The house is located near town. The street is short and quiet, and there is not much traffic passing through.
“It was ideal for me,” she said.
As much as she loves her new home, making the decision to move was not an easy one. The decisions of what to keep, what to sell and what to donate to charity were gut-wrenching.
“It was hard to realize that I couldn’t keep all of this stuff — I had to let things go,” Bray said. “These are things and they do not matter. I had to keep telling myself that. … It was very hard because I am a collector — of junket trinkets, ornamental doo-dads and folk art.” Her children helped her sort through all of her belongings and make the decisions about what items to keep. They also arranged for the movers and helped clean her new house.
“They moved me,” she said. “They did all the picture hanging. They packed me up.”
Two of her daughters are talented with plants and flowers and helped their mom clean out the overgrown brush and put on pots of colorful flowers and plants.
“We found a beautiful sasanqua,” Bray said. “It’s a red one. And there’s a white camellia. I had never seen a white one. And there are two pink late blooming azaleas. There’s another tree that blooms, and the blooms look like lilac blossoms. It’s not lilac, but it’s a cousin.”
She and her daughters found a second camellia as well as gardenias.
“It was a matter of cutting out all the wild plants and bringing the good shrubs to the front,” Bray said.
She transplanted two azaleas from her own mother’s yard to her new yard. They had spent years living in pots, but she believes her new home is the perfect place to give them a permanent place of their own. Bray also wants to plant some vegetables as well as maybe some figs, grapes and blueberries. Bray now has an easier drive to spend time visiting her husband regularly. Friends come over for lunch. One of her dear friends lives right across the street and she has met new friends in her short time in the neighborhood.
“After I took myself to task I realized that it didn’t matter as long as I have a chair to sit in, a table to eat at and a bed to sleep in,” Bray said, referring to when she was getting ready to move after so much time in one home. “That’s all I need and I’ll fill out the rest.”
‘It was hard to realize that I couldn’t keep all of this stuff — I had to let things go. These are things and they do not matter. I had to keep telling myself that. … It was very hard because I am a collector — of junket trinkets, ornamental doo-dads and folk art.’
Jean Bray, of Grove Park