The Ethereal Imagination Heals
It’s the cusp of my 59th birthday and I had a vivid dream last night.
It was so vivid and yet, somehow, I knew it was a dream. Without any real beginning, I was walking the 3 acre property that my grandparents purchased in 1948. I was at the cottage on Lighthouse Road — built by a Dr. in 1910 and sold to my grandpa for 7000. That was a lot of money back then. My grandfather had savings and loaned the balance from his father; he paid off the loan in one year. A $7,000 purchase from 1948 would have the equivalent purchasing power of approximately $94,100.91 in today's (2025) dollars, accounting for 77 years of inflation! Imagine (right now) being a young, blue collar husband (and father) working to earn an extra 47k in a year to hit your goal? As a pipefitter for Uniroyal Co., he made approximately 14 dollars a day.
In this dream, I was floating with Mike and we saw multiple homes nearby, many of them with burn scars and dilapidated roofs, it looked like parts of Detroit I’ve seen many times. We opened the door to a very tall structure and I was immediately struck by the high ceilings. 40 foot ceilings with beautiful green floral wall paper going ALL the way UP! I immediately heard a comment from my cousin, Jennifer. She said, “Yeah, those tall walls were a b_tch to wallpaper!” I smiled and asked her about her equally tall hubby — “Did he help you?” She replied, “No, my wife isn’t interested in helping with this property.” I said, “Wait, I thought you were married to a man?!” “No.” she said with a big glossy smile. Her hair was thin, dry looking and sort of the color of hay. Nothing like the real and current Jennifer.
We walked around and I was desperately looking for evidence of the original cottage.
Jennifer said, “Follow me!” As I followed her, I saw gorgeous, highly designed corners, shelves and vignettes to multiple unfamiliar doorways. We arrived at the kitchen and Mike was inspecting the ‘frosted’ glass doors on the hanging kitchen cupboards. They were installed in the ceiling, the kind he despises — he reached up and peeled off a strip of red vinyl with some frosted ‘sticky’ stuff attached to it. The whole place was peel and stick!
I heard her say, “Look at the sink!” I looked over and saw the original white porcelain farm sink. At that very moment, I heard voices greeting my grandma. There she was with long flowing turquoise hair and in great shape — better shape than I had ever seen her in! Suddenly, Siggy was there too and she walked up to give her a big hug. She said, “Honey, I can't remember your name!” Which is funny, because she always called Sigourney ‘the little one’. She admitted to being blind. I ran up to give her a hug, commenting on how thick and long her blue hair was.
Suddenly, my dream ended and I immediately realized that my ethereal dream was my busy brain working to heal past traumas, old wounds and was beginning to speak the unspoken words of the past — an ethereal language understood only by the soul.
Mysterious and magical, the human story of one unique, one of a kind life.
The photo post card is of an unknown child model from the 1900-1910 period. In French, it says Happy Birthday!
