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.

Visiting Indiana

The wedding was over, Tony and Leiya were headed for their mini-moon and now was the time to put into action the second part of our trip.

Since we were in Michigan...  well, how about a trip to a little town of Columbia City, Indiana?  And why would we bother going to Indiana?  My Japanese grandparents had settled in Columbia City and my mother had lived there until she went to college.  I had wonderful memories of visiting Indiana every summer and staying at my grandparents' country home!  Tetsu was completely gung-ho about the idea.

"We need to find your grandparents' grave and tell them about their great-granddaughter's wedding."

That is so much a Japanese way of thinking...  Visiting graves, making important announcements.

I approached Marcy and Keion about the idea and Marcy at least was thrilled at the prospect of a family trip to see her children's (if not hers) roots.  And so the plans were made.

One small problem.  We had no idea where anything was.  There are no relatives, there were no addresses or names or whatever left for me to explore.  The only possible lead was a lady who had made contact with me about 10 years ago when she was doing research for the community historical society about my grandparents (she found me through my blog!)  In recent years we'd lost contact but Leiya somehow tracked the lady down again through Facebook for me.

At any rate, the day after the wedding we said good-bye to Takumi and Julieta who were going off on their own to explore Detroit and with my brother's family in a large rented van and Tetsu and me in Leiya's borrowed car, we drove three and a half hours to Indiana. 

We had made reservations at an Airbnb near a lake and settled in to make plans about looking for roots.

Beautiful lake!

And a nice little cottage to enjoy but it rained a lot during our two days at the lake and it was cold!  I borrowed my brother's jacket.

Where to start?  How about Google Maps.  I zoomed in on Columbia City.  What did I remember?  My grandparents had a summer home next to a golf course.  I zoomed in on a few golf courses.  Hmm...  There was also a lake just below the summer house.  And a pond...  And a long road through a forest that ended in a circular driveway.  Zooming in and out of Google Maps I found a golf course with a nearby building that looked like it had familiar surroundings.

"Keion.  Do you remember the name of the golf course next to Jiichan's (grandfather's) farm?"

He didn't.  But together we looked at Google Maps and both of us spotted a familiar house. That must be it!  Now...  How to go about contacting the owners about visiting the grounds?  I would tackle that problem the next day.  For now, the family was hungry and we wanted to go find a supermarket.  We all piled in the van and went looking for downtown.

A few miles down the road I said,

"Wait a minute.  This looks familiar.  Is there a golf course nearby?"

And there was!  We made a U-turn and found a road leading into a forest.  Is this the place?

"This is it!  This is the road that leads to the farm!"

We drove a few minutes through the forest that broke into a clearing and the farmhouse that my brother and I remembered...  We'd found our childhood summer home!  And then we chickened out.

"We can't just barge in.  We're trespassing.  We'd better try to make contact by phone."

That night I contacted the historical society lady and made arrangements to have lunch with her the next day.  She also gave me directions on how to find my grandparents' gravestone at the cemetery and the name of the farmhouse owners.  No telephone number though.

The next morning we headed to the Columbia City cemetery and went wandering in all directions looking for the gravestone.  And found it!

My grandparents had always loved flowers.  My grandfather had called himself the church's self-appointed flower arranger because he brought in flowers from his garden every week when they were in season.

The grave looks pretty unkempt and I guess so because for over 50 years no one has every really visited it!  Leiya did make a short trip when she was in high school (from Ohio) but my mother never returned after her father's funeral and this was the first visit for me.  Well, granddaughter (me) and great-granddaughter (Kiana) got there!

After the cemetery visit we tried the county courthouse trying to get a phone number for the country house owners (no luck), and we located the small town house where my mother had grown up (now abandoned).  

And then it was time for lunch with Pat, the former historical society acquaintance and she had presents for me!!!

Pictures of my grandparents!  They are the center two people.  I don't know who they were with...

 My mother, probably before she got married.

Pat also gave me bottles that had been manufactured by my grandfather's soy sauce factory that she'd gotten at a town auction!  Soy sauce still in this one!

These two bottles both have "Oriental Show You" embossed on the bottles and the larger one was the original bottle that had been cork topped.  Such treasures for my family!!!

So many things that I had wanted to do in Indiana crossed off my list.  As for the farm house, Pat suggested going back to the golf course and asking for a telephone number there as the farm house owners had previously owned the golf course too... 

And so that's where we headed next...

Last of the wedding pictures

Oh dear...  I know you must be getting tired of wedding photos but I guess this blog is the place I am going to send friends and family if they want to see what all went on this special day...  I think tomorrow I'm going to be able to get to some other topic.

 Some of the details...  Flowers in jars.

A clever photographer's photo of the wedding rings and engagement ring on an origami crane.  There is Obaachan's obi-himo around the bridal bouquet.

 The tables got set up nicely.

These were actually the dollar store cutting boards I dressed up so that people could use them as portable tables to sign the quilt blocks.  I don't really know yet how successful that effort was.  I know Julieta was tracking down as many people as possible to get them to sign blocks and I know she got back about 40 signatures...  I sort of thought there were more people at the reception but it looks like a few couples signed the same block...  Anyway, I left the unsigned blocks with Leiya telling her that if she didn't mind a mixture of wedding guest blocks and random friend blocks who didn't attend, that she could get more signatures and send them back to me.  Deadline the end of July.  I will not begin further sewing on this quilt until August.

Candid photos that Tetsu got.

My sons.

 I'm happy to get a picture of these four special young people in my life.

Takumi and Julieta.

And this was just an unposed shot I caught on my cellphone towards the end of the wedding.

Thank you for all your warm thoughts for our Tony and Leiya's wonderful day.

Wedding photography

The photographer took some wedding pictures while guests pulled their chairs to the reception tent.

So... here she is.  I'm so happy Leiya chose this wedding dress which I had loved immediately when I'd first seen her in it in November but had wondered if it was too elegant for an outdoor wedding.  It wasn't! 

 Makes me smile!

 Joining the festivities under the tent.

 Just in time for Tetsu to tear up again...  Takumi did the honors of translating Tetsu's speech.

 Our family photos expand...

 And expand....

And expand!

We are all so happy that this day finally arrived!