Lily’s Long and Lively House

It is not easy to take a photo of Lily’s house, where Tony and I stayed for five days and four nights last year (the same length of time we stayed in L.A. California the other year and the year before that)—not with my phone. It is sooo long, one needs panoramic camera lens to do the job. So I had to shoot one part at a time for a composite photo. 

The picture below is the result of four shots, yet it does not capture the length and the width of it.

This one-story house, with a huge and packed attic, is beautifully sprawled on a half-acre lot. Once a week gardeners arrive to see to the plants outdoors, and a cleaning lady comes to see to the rooms indoors. 

There are all kinds of fruit trees and flowering plants in the gardens, and there are all sorts of collection (paintings, porcelain, glass, etc.) hanging on walls and sitting on glass-cased shelves.

What makes the house so interesting is that it bears the warm, personal imprint of Lily (Tony’s cousin) and her husband, who make guests feel so much at home. All the pieces kept there are either gifts from loved ones or items they both carted from different parts of the world.

Lily’s house is not only long in size, it is also long in happy history. She and her husband bought the property about 60 years ago. Through those years, the house saw Lily’s two children, plus some young nephews and nieces, grow up into adults now living their own lives.

All past and temporary inhabitants of that house (including Tony and me) still come to visit often. Not for its structure, but for the grace of memories long to be enjoyed and remembered.

"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." Proverbs 24:3-4 (NIV)