01/23/2010 Creating Our Family Wall
My dad is from Doncaster, England, and my experiences with his family involve happy spurts of togetherness surrounded by years of separation. I have not been there in 5 years, yet in my mind I can walk from room to room in my grandfather's house, passing through the yellow kitchen, glimpsing into the dining room and lounge, and walking up the red carpeted stairs to the bedrooms on the second floor. I can even capture the comforting smells of the house- hints of floral and spring that linger on the wrapping paper used for our Christmas gifts and remain in our guest room for days after our relatives return home after a visit to the States.
As a child I would frequently sneak into this room after my grandparents' departure, allowing that scent to surround me as I mourned them gone. Now as an adult I accept the distance between us and our family for what it is, and possess the confidence to know that, despite our infrequent meetings, I remain a part of them. My grandfather's house is the museum of the Walker family, and through this role it seems to have developed its own soul. Strolling from one room to the next you are surrounded by a history captured in picture frames- from my grandparents in World War II to my blond-haired father as a school boy, standing behind a pram with his older sisters. There are pictures of my cousins, squinting into the sun on the day of their college graduations, and the line of Walker dogs properly remembered- Skip and Rex and Basil and Dusty.
Photographs of my grandmother hang prominently in the lounge, alongside her needlework. Interspersed among the family pictures are watercolor paintings of Snowdonia, Caernarfon Castle, the city of York, and the Dales, along with slate wall hangings and Welsh love spoons. To know and understand the elements of life that held meaning for my grandparents requires that you simply walk through their house. There is such a beauty in that. Many, many miles away, my grandparents' house influences my thoughts on the home that I would like to create.
And while Jim and I have yet to find ourselves in our permanent home, we at least can still pound some nails in the wall! We had a family wall in our old apartment in Lincoln Park, and a couple weekends ago I started to recreate this space in our new home in Roscoe Village. I decided to place the pictures along the wall that is at your back when sitting at our desk. That way we can glance at the wall when entering the room and sitting down at the desk to work, but can go ahead and be productive without continuously staring at everyone's picture (I'm not sure if Jim would do this, but for me, I would find myself staring off into space if I had all those pictures within view! ). We have a LOT of wall space in this new place, and I wanted to share the feline portraits that we now have framed in our kitchen. The black and white cat was Oliver. I actually drew that with magic markers 3 years ago and hung it near his litter box (I'm a total weirdo when it comes to our cats- I understand this). I could never find it in my heart to get rid of this picture, and on a whim I framed it. Then I thought, well, we now also need a picture of Major! So I sat down with the markers and created Major's portrait. It's okay if you think we're both bizarre for hanging these, but we love them. Major is pleased too.
February, 2026- our cat pictures still exist. From left to right: Oliver, Major, Grady, and Bean.
