雙語故事:家,心之所在 Old House,Warm Memories

Dusting off the collection of photos that grace our family room wall, I lingered over the water color painting I had done of the old house, a gift to Bill, before that house was torn down to make room for the new one.

在擦拭着那些把我們家房間牆壁裝飾得漂亮雅緻的照片時，我在一幅水彩畫前停了下來。這幅以老房子爲主題的畫作是我在拆掉老房子、建造新房子之前畫的，是我送給丈夫比爾的禮物。

It seems like decades ago that we occupied that small two bedroom, gray sided home. Memories continued to flow freely as I stared at the home that Bill and I had lived in for over 23 years, and also the place where our two daughters grew up.

那時我們住在一間兩居室的灰色小屋裏，回想起來彷彿已經是幾十年前的事了。我凝視着畫中的小屋，無數回憶不斷涌現——比爾和我在小屋裏生活了23年多，兩個女兒也是在那裏長大的。

In the painting, the house is depicted in all its summer time glory—lush pink, red, white and purple flowers overflowed in the flower beds that, by August, resembled tall colorful bushes in all their flowering finery. The proof was there right on the wall. When we bought the house we fell in love with its cozy, livedin charm.

畫上呈現的是夏令時節老房子周圍的盛況——花壇上遍佈大片粉紅色、紅色、白色和紫色的花朵，八月裏，衆花齊放，一簇簇高高的花叢就像五彩華服一般。證據就在牆上。當年買下這間房子時，我們就愛上了它的“魅力”——舒適愜意，充滿生活氣息。

What we learned was that old-fashioned charm translated into lots of repairs. That old house was far from perfect, but the memories invoked are priceless. I’m particularly remembering back to when the girls were young.

後來我們才知道，這種老式風格的“魅力”意味着大量的修葺工作。那間老房子並不完美，不過它所喚起的回憶卻極其珍貴。我對女兒們還很小時發生的事情仍記憶猶新。

It was raining one Saturday afternoon and they wanted to play on their swing set. Bill went to the garage and returned with 4 huge round eye hooks and his trusty power drill. He went to work drilling the heavy duty bolts into the frame of the kitchen doorways. Then he went back outside to retrieve the swings. A few seconds later the girls were happily swinging from the kitchen doorways—laughing and squealing with delight over their rainy day adventure.

一個下着雨的週六下午，女兒們想玩鞦韆。比爾去了趟車庫，拿回來四個又大又圓的鏈鉤以及他那臺可靠耐用的動力鑽。他先在廚房門框上鑽上巨大的螺栓，接着到外面把鞦韆裝置搬進屋。不一會兒，女孩們就開心地在廚房門框上蕩起了鞦韆——這一雨天的玩樂讓她們欣喜得又笑又叫。

Another time, Bill came home with an over-sized plastic slide. I foolishly asked him where he thought he was going to put it as our house was way too small to accommodate such a big toy. He gave me a look like I was the loony one and told me it would fit just fine in the frontroom. When it was discovered that the slide wasn’t slick enough Bill had a solution—some baby powder sprinkled on the surface! It was smooth sliding all the way. Afterwards, my clever hubby vacuumed up the powder on the rug, and the front-room was none the worse for wear.

還有一次，比爾帶回了一座超大規格的塑料滑梯。我傻傻地問他打算把它放在哪裏，因爲我們的房子實在太小，無法容納那樣一件大玩具。他像看傻子一樣看了我一眼，告訴我說，那座滑梯剛好可以放在客廳裏。當發現滑梯表面不夠光滑時，比爾想到了一個解決方法——在滑梯表面灑一些寶寶爽身粉！如此一來，滑梯變得非常光滑。隨後，我那聰明的丈夫用吸塵器吸走地毯上的粉末，我們家的客廳並沒有因此而變髒。

I guess the reason for flashing back to these memories is the fact that we are now grandparents. This new turning point in our lives has definitely brought out the kid in us. Oh, and I’m also looking at the familiar hooks in the door frame. We have a double doorway that divides the family room and my home office. Bill sized it up one day and decided it would be a great spot to hang a swing for our granddaughters. At first I balked at the idea. I resisted, but then I remembered the fun the swinging sisters had and I relented. The bolts were screwed in and a pink baby swing gets hooked up whenever our little angel Avery wants to go for a ride. Our new house is a perfect home compared to the one we lived in for so many years. It is big, beautiful and can handle any ideas that my dear hubby can concoct.

我想，腦海裏之所以會閃現這些記憶片段，源於這樣一個事實——現在我們已經是外祖父母了。這一新的人生轉折點無疑會勾起我們內心的童真。噢，我正在看着門框上那熟悉的吊鉤。新房子裏有一道雙重門，將家人的房間與我的家庭辦公室分割開來。某天，比爾度量一番之後認定這是掛上一副鞦韆供外孫女們玩耍的絕佳位置。起初，我反對這個主意，態度強硬，不過隨後想起女兒們當年玩鞦韆時那種開心的場景，我心軟了。門上的螺栓 已經扭緊了，一副粉紅色的兒童鞦韆被吊了起來，我們的小天使艾弗裏隨時想玩都可以。與那間居住了多年的老房子相比，我們的新房子很完美——空間大、環境優美，還可以讓我親愛的丈夫將其種種奇思妙想付諸實施。

Last Christmas the girls had another painting done, this one of the new house. It is hung right next to the old one, and in between them is a silver heart that says, “Home is where you hang your heart. It doesn’t matter if your house is big or small, fancy or plain. It takes love, laughter and joy to make a house a home.” I’m looking forward to the years ahead with my grandkids, those here and those yet to be born. I hope our house will be a home they’ll have fond memories of, whether they’ll be sliding, swinging or dancing their way into the future.

去年聖誕節，女兒們爲這間新房子畫了一幅畫。這幅畫就掛在那幅舊作旁邊，在它們中間是一顆銀色的心，上面寫着：“家乃心之所在。不管你的房子是大還是小，是豪宅還是陋室，一間擁有愛、笑聲和歡樂的房子纔是家。”我期待着與外孫們（已經出生以及那些尚未出生的）一起度過的未來時光。我希望我們的房子會成爲這樣一個家——裏面有着他們各自珍愛的種種回憶，不管是滑滑梯、盪鞦韆，還是跳着舞迎接未來。