When Grandma Elsie passed away, I met all of her friends and relatives and learned more about my grandmother as a person. I heard stories about her youth when she was being courted by my grandfather. Some of my relatives lived in the house with her and shared stories about how she covered up for them when they misbehaved from time to time. Suddenly, I saw her as a woman and not just my grandmother.
At that time, I had just finished journalism school and wanted to use my new skills to find out more about the house's history.

I followed his advice and I rewrote the story and submitted it to the paper. To my surprise, they accepted it and asked me to send photos. My dad had photos of my grandmother at the house on her wedding day. We also took a digital photo of picture of the house (which dated back to the early 1900s) that my grandmother had hanging in her bedroom.
My friend Erica, a photographer, went with me to the house to photograph it with James. One of her photos is above. (Photo Credit: Erica Staton, 2003) I sent everything into the paper and waited for it to be published. When the article came out a few months later, I was so excited to have created a tribute to my grandmother and The Old House.