The Mystery of the Red Farmhouse

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 22

“Okay, so you remember swinging on the front porch swing with” before I could finish, mom stopped me. “There was no front porch on the house; it was a hammock I remember swinging in.  The other girl was also named Marie and we were about 10 or 11 years old, I think we were related somehow.”  Mom was adamant in her memories, “It was a large red farmhouse with an attached barn and a cemetery out back of the house. We used to meet family there, some relation to me. I think they owned a store in Columbia Falls and were somehow related to this Marie.” Years before mom and I had tried to find this mysterious red farmhouse, but were running low on gas and had to turn around. This mystery remains unsolved.

“What’s the chance this Marie was a Crane?”  I asked, trying once again to figure out this mystery.  “She was the daughter of Burpie Scott Crane of Whiting.” Mom thought for a moment… “That might be her, Grandma (meaning my grandmother) always talked about Burpie, I think it stuck in my head because the name was odd.” So I took another shot in the dark, “what’s the chance this house could have been in Whiting?”  The response was immediate and certain “No, I’m 100% sure the farmhouse was in Unionville. It was surrounded by hills for I remember being there when a thunderstorm came through. I could hear the thunder echo off the hills around the house. I also remember an older woman in the house; she owned a stereoscope I loved to look at and had beautiful Hollyhocks in the summer.  The house was built on a slope overlooking the road and beautifully kept.”

I would love to be able to write some creative non-fiction about Mason in the hammock. But at this time there are still too many unanswered questions, too much speculation about who owned the house, why did her parents take her there and who was the little girl in the hammock with her? I would like to be able to end this story with answers, but it’s not to be.  Instead, I end it with a hope to one day to find the red farmhouse with attached barn and find out who was in the hammock with mom.