To continue...

We headed back to the golf course and piled into the little clubhouse.  I explained again (let's see...  I'd told my story of looking for roots to.. a gas station attendant when asking directions to the cemetery, to a mail deliverer when asking about the abandoned town house, to the country courthouse retired sheriff when seeking a telephone number and to a local lakeside resident who had pleasantly asked why Tetsu and I were sporting cameras around our necks.)

The golf course desk clerk pleasantly (EVERYONE was pleasant in Columbia City!) said,

"Well, let me give the owners a call and see if they are home."

"Hello?  I've got some lady and her family here who says she is the grand-daughter of the former owners of your house.  Are you around?  Ok.  Thanks.  I'll send them over."

It was that easy!!

We drove on back down the road and through the forest again and were met outside by the farm house owner.

Another dream come true!!!  The owner said his parents had bought the house and the golf course not long after my grandfather had died in 1967 and he inherited the house later and he and his wife had lived and raised their family there since.  We tried to pin down the times when my mother and his parents might have been in school together but couldn't quite make a connection...  The house itself has been changed little since my grandparents lived there.  New siding and paint, a second bathroom upstairs, a combining of a mud room and the kitchen but the basic layout of the house is the same.

We checked out the back yard with the very large Japanese maple.  The owner assumes that it had been planted when my grandparents lived there.

There is also a very large ginko tree, one of the largest the owner had ever seen in Indiana he said, and he assumed that had been planted by my grandparents also.

The backyard has been converted to lawn and a small basketball court.  I vaguely remember it as the flower garden with roses and iris and gladiolas that my grandmother tended.

In the front yard is a large tree which I have memories of my grandfather climbing in order to put up a rope swing for my brother and me to play on.

"You are too old to be climbing trees!  Let me go up!"

I remember my mother yelling up at my grandfather...  He told her he was a better tree climber than she was.

The owner invited us into his house!!!  Where his poor wife was just getting over a cold or something and had been relaxing on her sofa.  She too happily put aside her book and blanket to let us strangers traipse through her house!

 I remember watching bunnies through the front window.  Catching fireflies on the front porch.

The owners let us check out the kitchen and dining room...  So beautifully decorated now!

And do you want to see what absolutely set my heart afire?!

In the living room of their house, in a beautiful place of honor, is an oil painting they had found in the attic of the house when they bought it.  Signed by my grandfather!

He had painted as a hobby and Pat had a few pictures of paintings of his donated to the historical society or owned by community citizens.  I even have a watercolor that he had painted of his road through the forest in my entryway.  It was so wonderful to see this oil-painting being loved by this family and looked at everyday.  It looked just lovely on their beautiful blue living room walls! 

After about a half an hour of chatting we said our thanks and headed back to our Airbnb.  I asked to walk the forest road to the highway and my family and the car went ahead of me.

A walk down memory lane.

Through the trees you can see the golf course where my grandfather had a heart attack and passed away at age 84.  We have always thought what a wonderful way for him to go doing what he loved best.  He had been an avid golfer and his friends had laughed when he'd bought the house next to the golf course!

In the summers I remember picking Queen Anne's Lace blossoms but in this season the forest is covered in pretty trillium in pink and white and purple.

 Memories of seeing deer on the road.

 Of riding on a tractor with my grandfather.

 Of doing embroidery with my grandmother.

 Of fishing in the pond.

 Of happy summers.

Of going to the gate every evening and pulling it closed for the night.  I guess it doesn't serve much purpose nowadays!

 What pretty scenery along the way home.

 So very different from California and even Japan...  The farm buildings are different.

It was a wonderful trip to Indiana!  Beyond all my expectations!  I wonder if I'll ever get there again but I am so glad we made the effort to get there this trip.