January 18, 2020

We had a dear friend in Maine, Rita, who had been fighting cancer for years before we moved there.

Two years later, in the late winter of early 2009, 

the doctors told her there was nothing more they could do for her.

Jed and I had visited with her often, but after that news, we were with her every chance we got.

Rita had had a Christmas village on display in her dining room every winter, and that year was no exception.

Jed was disappointed when we visited one day in the early spring and it was gone,

and being barely five years old, he apparently didn't hide it very well.

Rita told him she had put it away because it was now mud season (aka spring in Maine).

She asked him if he liked it and he said yes.

She smiled sweetly and said to him, "Well, maybe one day it will be yours."

True to her word, after she died that fall, her sister gave the village to Jed.

We were so overwhelmed...

...with the kindness of Rita asking her sister to do that for Jed

...with the generosity of her sister to fulfill her wishes

...with our own heartbreak over losing a precious friend.
We set her village up immediately and cried daily every time we saw it that winter.

Two of the buildings in Rita's village were barns, with lots of farm animals, a tractor, and other farm accoutrements. 

The other building was this little Victorian house.

When we started adding our own buildings to the mix, 

they were all town buildings
and we decided to set up the farm separately from the town.

In the days ahead I'll showcase individually the buildings we've added,and explain their meaning for us.

They represent wonderful memories of something special we did that year,

but none will ever be as lovely to me as Rita's house.