Carrie Link

OUR HOUSE

Like the old Crosby Stills & Nash song says, our house, is a very, very, very fine house. This is the first "fine" house I've ever lived in. I think it's because of the "energy" this house has, it has always been loved and lived in by good people.

The story goes like this...

In 1926 the house was built. The original family had a daughter named Hortence. She lived in the house her whole entire life. She never married, nor had children. Her "family" was the employees at Safeway, yes, "my" Safeway on Woodstock. As she grew old she told her "family" that she didn't know what to do with the house when she died. One of her favorite employees, Hattie, told her to donate it to The Sisters of Saint Francis, in Clinton, Iowa. Hattie's real sister was a Sister there.

So that is just what ol' Hortence did, with the provision that the house be used for the work of St. Francis for seven years.

Along came us. My husband had his eyes on this house all those seven years, and researched and discovered who owned it. For seven years he placed calls and sent letters to Clinton, Iowa. One day on a bike ride, his cell phone rang. The Sisters were ready to sell. The seven years were up, they needed the money, the house was ours.

The promise we made was that we would help the two Sisters relocate, and we would go on using the house to serve St. Francis.

That's what we did, and that's what we do. In the words of St. Francis himself, "Speak the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."