Lasting Legacies . . .

As most of you know by now, a few years ago I entered the world of real estate by becoming an agent with Keller Williams Elite Realty in Baytown. Yep - I often accuse my 85-year-old father of not letting the grass grow under his feet. (Have you ever heard that one?) I seem to be following in his footsteps.

I have really enjoyed this latest adventure, even though I seem to be juggling far too many pins in the air at the moment. Some of that is soon to change though.

At any rate, not long ago my cousins on my dad's side of the family contacted me about selling the acreage that they inherited from our grandparents' original five-acre spread in Baytown. When my grandmother passed away in the mid-90s, my father and his other siblings inherited 3.25 acres of the original tract and sold it.

D. J. and Elenora (Ressler) Hechler, abt 1963

My uncle and his family continued to live on their portion.

I know for a fact my grandparents - D. J. and Eleanora (Ressler) Hechler - never dreamed their granddaughter would sell their property for their other grandchildren. Life is, though, odd that way at times.

They bought the property when it was deep in the country. Major roads that now crisscross nearby were not yet carved from the ground even in my girlhood. D. J. and Eleanora bought the property in the spring of 1937, and my Dad was born in the house later that year. Everyone used an outhouse for several years until a bathroom was built onto the house. My uncle built the barn himself. A large garden graced the property, as did a smokehouse, a pump house, and a large pond in the back.

I have few memories of Grandpa D.J. He died when I was about five years old. I do remember (or maybe I remember the stories told to me?) of his playing at the Hechler kitchen table with me and pretending to be surprised when bread popped up out of my play toaster. I do remember him taking me to see the rabbits in the red barn behind their house and to look at the goldfish in the large concrete trough between the house and the barn.

Grandma Hechler did not pass away until I was married, so my memories of her are wider and fuller. I would oftentimes get her jigsaw puzzling and then ask her questions about her girlhood. When I had to interview my oldest living relative while in college at Texas A & M University, she was the one I interviewed. I used to decorate her house at Christmas time. She had this ugly, gaudy pink tinsel garland that she wound around the tree every year. I wish I had at least a small section of that now.

She would bake the best chocolate chip cookies while my Dad mowed her acreage, and then she would send them home in a tin coffee can. Her fried chicken was to die for, and when she would come spend the night at our house, she would bring a big black rosary that I asked a thousand questions about. Later, I became a Catholic even as the other Catholics in the family walked away from the faith of their childhood.

Selling this property was bittersweet. I am very happy for my cousins who can now move on to new adventures. At the same time, no Hechler, after 87 years, will live on any portion of the property. But we all must move on to new adventures, new stories, and new chapters. I am happy the property sold above asking price. I am really grateful that the family that has purchased it has already fallen in love with it and plans to build a house and stay on it forever.

Or at least for a long, long time - just like my grandparents did.