House sitting

Twice in the past week I have visited the house we are buying to meet with contractors. We are waiting for bids from each of them for the long list of projects that need doing.
Each time, Hilary, the current owner, invited me to sit and have tea with her after the contractors left. I have now spent hours in my future living room getting to know the woman who has lived in the house for 24 years, who was married for 54 years to the home's other occupant, who died in November.
When I left yesterday, Hilary paid me the high compliment of saying she feels she is leaving the house in good hands. I felt the same way when I sold my house, and it is a wonderful feeling. You put so much of yourself into a house that it helps a lot when you like the people who will inherit that which you have so carefully tended.
10/21