Ordinary Days By Lauren Denton: Little pieces of home
When my grandmother was a young wife and mother, she and my grandfather left their home in Arkansas and moved to Fairhope, Alabama. Most people would think moving to Fairhope, the quintessential quaint town overlooking Mobile Bay, couldn’t be anything but dreamy. But according to Mema, it rained all the time. It was a dreary, drippy, humid splotch on the map, she missed her family, and all she wanted was to go home.
She didn’t get her wish. Instead of moving back home, they moved to a tiny town near Mobile called Whistler, then to another tiny town north of Mobile called Eight Mile, and that’s where they raised their daughters — my mom and aunt—on a red dirt road out in the “country.” Mema was the queen of that house, and she and Papa cultivated a garden and a life there. She cooked and baked, he planted and built, and they loved their people well. Though Mema made a comfortable and happy home, she always missed her first home, the place where she began.
Because of their move to lower Alabama — and staying there—my story began there as well. The first time I left was for college, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that in four years, I’d be back, but the truth is, I never really returned. I came back for summers and for a brief time after college graduation, but I got a job up here in Birmingham shortly after and I’ve been here ever since. And like my grandmother, though I’ve built a comfortable and happy home with my people, I still miss my first home, the place where I began.
When my first book came out four years ago, my publisher made bookmarks for me that said “Some little pieces of home always stay with you.” I didn’t come up with that line, but I quickly realized how perfect it was, not just for my books, but for me too. Almost without realizing it, I’ve filled our home with little reminders of where I came from: shells from “our” beach, framed maps of places around along the Gulf Coast, artwork that depicts the locales I love and pieces of furniture my grandfather made in his woodworking shop. I’ve even set five novels in south Alabama as a way of keeping home close. I can open The Hideaway and set myself on the backroads of Baldwin County and the shores of familiar bays. Glory Road puts me back on my grandparents’ dirt road. The Summer House will always remind me of my other grandparents and the little community they lived in on yet another bay. And this month’s The One You’re With puts me squarely in Mobile. My books are touchstones to the places I’ve loved, the places I miss.
I know I’m lucky to have two homes — where I began and where I am now. If you’d told me at age eighteen that in moving to college, I was actually moving away from Mobile for good, I would have laughed. Or possibly cried. It took me a while, even after getting a “real job” and getting married and starting a life here, to accept that I really wouldn’t be moving back. I know nothing is set in stone and the future can change in a blink, but having two children grow up here in Homewood has helped make me more accepting — and maybe even content—knowing that this is where we’ll remain. They’re making memories in this place, just as I made mine four hours south, and then they’ll decide their future. For now, when my girls say, “Can I just go to college in Birmingham so I don’t have to move away?” I give a hearty yes! And I pray they’ll want to stick close even as they grow up. But if they don’t, I’ll open my arms and let them go, knowing some little pieces of home will always stay with them.
When I’m not writing about my family and our various shenanigans, I write novels and go to the grocery store. My novels are in stores (locally at Little Professor and Alabama Booksmith) and online. You can reach me by email at Lauren@LaurenKDenton.com, visit my website LaurenKDenton.com, or find me on Instagram @LaurenKDentonBooks or Facebook ~LaurenKDentonAuthor.