Ode to Our Home

A touching tribute to the house the Huots built

If these walls could talk, what a story they’d say, of a family who came to live in it one day.

In 1973, as the story began, the first seven Huots arrived in a van.

These walls didn’t know how much we’d been through, trying to keep five busy young folks in view.

On our many long roads till we finally arrived, oh, how could we keep track of a family of five? We had travelled five days from a province afar, with five noisy youngsters cooped up in the car.

This house looked much bigger than ours in North Bay, and with one happy chorus, we said we’d stay.

Then all seven bailed out and ran up to the door, as it opened we marvelled at what lay before.

With the living room painted a beautiful white, through two picture windows shone plenty of light. The gold satin drapes and gold carpeted floor, left us eagerly wanting to see something more.

The kitchen looked small on that warm summer day, but numerous changes were soon on the way.

Getting seven of us to the table for meals, in that very small kitchen was quite an ordeal. We agreed that we needed to add something more, and a new kitchen window was the first chore. We then had a window installed as a bay, and a nook in which to eat dinner each day.

In ’76 I grew tired of white, and decided to paint the living room bright.

At the end of the week, I admired the wall, and decided that yellow looked good after all.

As our daughters and sons married mates of their own, we eventually noticed our family had grown. We welcomed nine grandchildren and added one, plus two little great-grandsons to add to the fun.

Our kitchen now couldn’t accommodate all, that’s when we decided to take out the wall.

Now the kitchen was big—but that wouldn’t be all, new windows, new counters, new flooring installed. We sanded the cupboards and painted all night, in order to make our big kitchen just right.

Over all these long years, our family grew, and then we were happy our kitchen did, too.

We had enough room for all 30 to dine, in a much bigger kitchen that suited us fine.

After 41 years of our life in this home, we are closing the doors and will turn off the phone.