This week I was given the word Remember with the caveat that I would remember that at all times, I was never alone.

 

My favorite time of year is spring. I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest nearly all my life, and the gray skies and seemingly continual drizzle can get old. So I love it when my flower bulbs peak through the soil and I can plant summer flower seeds.

 

Both my brothers died in the spring. When those days come my heart aches, and my spirit mourns. And so this week I’m going to share a time in my life when the three of us shared a once in a lifetime experience. The following is from the memoir I am currently working on:

 

“When Dru was nine, Dad gathered the family together in the living room and told them they were moving. (Dad was an Episcopal priest and had just been accepted into the South American Missionary Society.)

 

Dru had a best friend for the first time in her life. Her name was Julie. They were in the same class and had become inseparable. They played together at recess and went over to each others house after school. They had sleep overs and told each other everything. They both loved troll dolls, and Dru had just received a troll castle.

 

“I’m not going!” She said. “I’m going to stay with Julie, her Mom will let me!”

 

Dru never wanted to leave her first real friend and fly thousands of miles away for years!

 

Dad nearly broke her heart when he gently told her that she was part of a family, and that they would all go together and share this amazing experience. He went on to say that they would be living in a castle in a small country in South America. They would live in the capital city and also travel into the country. Dad would be responsible for two churches. Dad had them all draw pictures of what they thought the castle would look like.

 

That week the local paper came to interview Dad and take a family picture for the article. All their possessions were divided into what they would take, and what went to storage. Mom decided what they would need, and only those things went with them. Dru’s heart broke a bit more as she watched Mom put her troll castle in a box for storage. 

 

Christmas Eve arrived, and the family was packed up. They spent the night at Grandma’s house and she drove them to the airport the next day. They flew to San Francisco to spend a couple of days with Dad’s parents who didn’t think they should be going to a “God forsaken poverty stricken country.” 

 

Dad’s parents lived in San Jose, California in a very nice house with multiple bedrooms and a large yard. The living room furniture was covered in plastic, and only very important guests were allowed in there.

 

They left very early in the morning and flew to New York, then boarded a plane headed for Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mom was quiet and crying the entire time and Dru was miserable sitting with her.  Doug and Brian sat with Dad who talked to them softly and pointed outside the window.

 

Dru didn’t sleep well and was nervous when the plane made an unscheduled landing in Brazil because of mechanical difficulties. It was raining when they got off the plane, and so warm the pavement remained dry. That never happened in Seattle! When they got back on the plane it flew to Buenos Aires. They changed planes and flew on to Montevideo, Uruguay. They were picked up at the airport by a church member with a car and driver.

 

The castle, called Duart House, towered over the driveway. Dru was proud to point out that it had turrets, just like her drawing. Through a sliding glass door was a drive through entry, tiled in huge black and white squares. Part of the castle was built over this drive through, so you could actually drive a car under the castle to the back yard.

 

In it was a marble fireplace. The front door was huge and imposing in dark wood with black iron accents. It opened, and they walked into a hallway. Immediately in front of was a white curving staircase with royal blue carpeting and a rope banister. On one side was an elevator. In two of the corners were complete sets of armor with swords. Brian’s eyes lit up as he made a bee line for a sword!  Dad saw it too, and headed him off.

 

To the left was a ballroom. Window seats below tall windows covered with thick drapes took up one wall. There was a shiny black Steinway Grand piano at the entrance. Dru’s mind became filled with fancy dresses and dancing with someone playing the classical music she knew from her ballet classes. There was also an alter and chapel area in the room.” How very strange,” Dru thought.

 

Across the entry was the formal dining room.  It too, was a large room with high ceilings filled with heavy furniture covered in plush fabric. Dru thought perhaps it belonged in a king and queens banquet hall, and wondered if she would be able to reach her food.

 

The family was led up the curving stairs to the living quarters. They were never to use the elevator.

 

The living quarters took up most of the second floor. The rooms were massive, and the furniture nearly as large as the downstairs. They walked into a sitting area. Beyond was a deck overlooking the backyard. The galley kitchen was to the left of the deck.

 

They checked out the bedrooms and bathrooms in front first. The children learned what a bidet was, and again Brian got a wicked gleam in his eyes. Dru was certain wet floors and fountains would be happening at the first opportune moment. 

 

The master bedroom had two small balconies and a dressing room connected to the master bath. There was another large bedroom and bath suite, and Doug and Brian would be sharing it. The view from these rooms looked out over a busy highway that separated their new neighborhood from the inland waters that fed out into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The family was escorted back through the sitting area to the living room. In the hallway between the sitting area and the living room was a small guest room. It had its own glass door leading to the deck and in a closet was a sink. This was to be Dru’s room.

 

The living room was large with wood paneling and built in bookcases flanking the marble fireplace. Later they discovered original editions of books like Tarzan, by English authors. During their stay, the children learned about “William” books that featured a precocious young boy in London, and his adventures during world war two.He became their favorite bedtime story. 

Huge windows allowed views of both the back yard and the front. They learned there was a lighting rod on top of the roof to protect the house from the lighting that came in off the water. It would be struck twice during their stay.

 

There were servant’s quarters. At the back of the kitchen was a hallway that led to the backstairs into the kitchen on the main floor. In that hallway was a small sitting room and two bedrooms. When they arrived Rocha the caretaker and gardener, his wife Marta who cooked for any meetings that took place there, their daughter Raquel who was engaged to be married, and their son Antonio lived in the house. Raquel had a small bedroom off the kitchen.

 

Dru soon learned that in this country there were two distinct classes of people. You either had a maid or you were a maid or other servant. Very soon they hired Marta’s sister, Ana, to be their housekeeper. Mom also hired Raquel to teach her to speak Spanish.

 

Their new church was a massive building in one of the poorest neighborhoods. It had huge Roman columns in front and sat at the top of a tall broad staircase. It was more like a cathedral than a church. The people were welcoming on Sunday morning, although there weren’t many children. The congregation was largely made up of British expatriates with heavy accents. The American Ambassador was a member of the church, which was kind of cool. There was no  Sunday school program like at home.

 

Milk was very expensive in Uruguay. They couldn’t drink the water because of contamination. So often the children drank pop and Mom and Dad drank wine with dinner. When they went out to eat they noticed that many parents allowed their children to drink wine as well.

 

It was customary to take a siesta in the middle of the day. All the stores and businesses closed from noon until 2 pm. Dinner time was usually around 10 o’clock at night.

 

There were no grocery stores. There were street fairs that traveled to different neighborhoods on different days.  At each stall you could buy produce, housewares, and even pets. There was a bakery and butcher store for bread and meat.

 

The children were enrolled in the British Schools. They had to wear school uniforms. They were dark green and white and included a neck tie and brown shoes. Doug and Brian had gray wool pants.

 

The first school year passed quickly and both Dru and Doug were signed up for summer camp.

The girls stayed in tents with one counselor and 5 girls of the same age in each. One night when she was getting into bed there was a tarantula on the side of the tent right above her bed! She screamed, and when the other girls saw it, they did too. One of the male counselors had them leave the tent and then “took care of it.” He told them that the tarantulas communicated with each other, and that as that one died he told the others to stay out of the tent. He told the girls that no other spider would dare go in there. Dru didn’t really believe him, but she wanted to. 

 

Another night, the only food offered for dinner was huge kettles full of steamed mussels. Dru didn’t like seafood, but had never tasted mussels. The counselors told her it tasted just like chicken. It didn’t, and she went to bed hungry. She was happy when it was time for Mom and Dad to pick her up.

 

When school started again, Dru joined Doug in the secondary section of the school. They rode an old run down school bus that belched exhaust whenever the driver shifted gears. She soon tried to sit next to an older student named Tara. She was the older sister of Doug’s friend Meno. They were from Holland. Tara wore make up and was the only person Dru knew that could make her school uniform look stylish. On the way home from school each day, Tara would put on pink frosted lipstick and darken the eyeshadow on her eyelids. Dru was fascinated, and wanted to wear make up, too. 

 

British schools have prefects, like in Harry Potter. There were weekly general assemblies and the students were divided up into their assigned “House.”  Each assembly began by singing “God Save The Queen” and the Uruguayan National Anthem, which begins, “ The homeland or the tomb, Liberty or die with glory” in Spanish. Dru had no idea what the Spanish words meant, but did her best to sing along. The prefects were watching, and she didn’t want to get in trouble.

 

Mom decided to begin a Camp Fire Girls counsel in Uruguay. Possibly because she wanted to be able to connect Dru with other American and English speaking girls her age.

 

Dad continued to take time off in the summer. The family went camping out in the country. As they drove down the rural roads black shapes hopped in front of the car. They were tarantulas! One morning as they gathered the blankets and tarps they had slept on there was a scorpion under where Dru had slept.  Later she found out how poisonous they are.

 

Dru’s favorite vacation was when they drove to Paraguay and Brazil. They visited Iguazu Falls.

The family arrived at the hotel, and as soon as they checked in they decided to go see the falls.

They could hear the roaring water almost immediately. After walking through the woods, the forest finally opened up. In front of them was a wall of falling water up to the sky. It was like a mountain was scooped out with a huge ice cream scoop and never ending sheets of water continued to crash against the rocks below. Dru had never seen anything so beautiful and powerful. You can see photos here: https://iguazufalls.com/national-park/   and here: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/303/ 

 

The hotel was unique as well, because the surrounding forest was full of giant parrots that perched on the lounges around the pool. Mom bought jewelry, mantillas, and amazing embroidered cloth from the local women.”

 

Unfortunately, this castle no longer exists. The church sold the property and it was torn down. A resort now sits where it once was. I had many adventures in the castle and in the surrounding neighborhoods with my brothers. Not many people can say they lived in a castle and learned to play the piano on a Steinway Grand.

This week I was given the word Remember with the caveat that I would remember that at all times, I was never alone.

 

My favorite time of year is spring. I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest nearly all my life, and the gray skies and seemingly continual drizzle can get old. So I love it when my flower bulbs peak through the soil and I can plant summer flower seeds.

 

Both my brothers died in the spring. When those days come my heart aches, and my spirit mourns. And so this week I’m going to share a time in my life when the three of us shared a once in a lifetime experience. The following is from the memoir I am currently working on:

 

“When Dru was nine, Dad gathered the family together in the living room and told them they were moving. (Dad was an Episcopal priest and had just been accepted into the South American Missionary Society.)

 

Dru had a best friend for the first time in her life. Her name was Julie. They were in the same class and had become inseparable. They played together at recess and went over to each others house after school. They had sleep overs and told each other everything. They both loved troll dolls, and Dru had just received a troll castle.

 

“I’m not going!” She said. “I’m going to stay with Julie, her Mom will let me!”

 

Dru never wanted to leave her first real friend and fly thousands of miles away for years!

 

Dad nearly broke her heart when he gently told her that she was part of a family, and that they would all go together and share this amazing experience. He went on to say that they would be living in a castle in a small country in South America. They would live in the capital city and also travel into the country. Dad would be responsible for two churches. Dad had them all draw pictures of what they thought the castle would look like.

 

That week the local paper came to interview Dad and take a family picture for the article. All their possessions were divided into what they would take, and what went to storage. Mom decided what they would need, and only those things went with them. Dru’s heart broke a bit more as she watched Mom put her troll castle in a box for storage. 

 

Christmas Eve arrived, and the family was packed up. They spent the night at Grandma’s house and she drove them to the airport the next day. They flew to San Francisco to spend a couple of days with Dad’s parents who didn’t think they should be going to a “God forsaken poverty stricken country.” 

 

Dad’s parents lived in San Jose, California in a very nice house with multiple bedrooms and a large yard. The living room furniture was covered in plastic, and only very important guests were allowed in there.

 

They left very early in the morning and flew to New York, then boarded a plane headed for Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mom was quiet and crying the entire time and Dru was miserable sitting with her.  Doug and Brian sat with Dad who talked to them softly and pointed outside the window.

 

Dru didn’t sleep well and was nervous when the plane made an unscheduled landing in Brazil because of mechanical difficulties. It was raining when they got off the plane, and so warm the pavement remained dry. That never happened in Seattle! When they got back on the plane it flew to Buenos Aires. They changed planes and flew on to Montevideo, Uruguay. They were picked up at the airport by a church member with a car and driver.

 

The castle, called Duart House, towered over the driveway. Dru was proud to point out that it had turrets, just like her drawing. Through a sliding glass door was a drive through entry, tiled in huge black and white squares. Part of the castle was built over this drive through, so you could actually drive a car under the castle to the back yard.

 

In it was a marble fireplace. The front door was huge and imposing in dark wood with black iron accents. It opened, and they walked into a hallway. Immediately in front of was a white curving staircase with royal blue carpeting and a rope banister. On one side was an elevator. In two of the corners were complete sets of armor with swords. Brian’s eyes lit up as he made a bee line for a sword!  Dad saw it too, and headed him off.

 

To the left was a ballroom. Window seats below tall windows covered with thick drapes took up one wall. There was a shiny black Steinway Grand piano at the entrance. Dru’s mind became filled with fancy dresses and dancing with someone playing the classical music she knew from her ballet classes. There was also an alter and chapel area in the room.” How very strange,” Dru thought.

 

Across the entry was the formal dining room.  It too, was a large room with high ceilings filled with heavy furniture covered in plush fabric. Dru thought perhaps it belonged in a king and queens banquet hall, and wondered if she would be able to reach her food.

 

The family was led up the curving stairs to the living quarters. They were never to use the elevator.

 

The living quarters took up most of the second floor. The rooms were massive, and the furniture nearly as large as the downstairs. They walked into a sitting area. Beyond was a deck overlooking the backyard. The galley kitchen was to the left of the deck.

 

They checked out the bedrooms and bathrooms in front first. The children learned what a bidet was, and again Brian got a wicked gleam in his eyes. Dru was certain wet floors and fountains would be happening at the first opportune moment. 

 

The master bedroom had two small balconies and a dressing room connected to the master bath. There was another large bedroom and bath suite, and Doug and Brian would be sharing it. The view from these rooms looked out over a busy highway that separated their new neighborhood from the inland waters that fed out into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The family was escorted back through the sitting area to the living room. In the hallway between the sitting area and the living room was a small guest room. It had its own glass door leading to the deck and in a closet was a sink. This was to be Dru’s room.

 

The living room was large with wood paneling and built in bookcases flanking the marble fireplace. Later they discovered original editions of books like Tarzan, by English authors. During their stay, the children learned about “William” books that featured a precocious young boy in London, and his adventures during world war two.He became their favorite bedtime story. 

Huge windows allowed views of both the back yard and the front. They learned there was a lighting rod on top of the roof to protect the house from the lighting that came in off the water. It would be struck twice during their stay.

 

There were servant’s quarters. At the back of the kitchen was a hallway that led to the backstairs into the kitchen on the main floor. In that hallway was a small sitting room and two bedrooms. When they arrived Rocha the caretaker and gardener, his wife Marta who cooked for any meetings that took place there, their daughter Raquel who was engaged to be married, and their son Antonio lived in the house. Raquel had a small bedroom off the kitchen.

 

Dru soon learned that in this country there were two distinct classes of people. You either had a maid or you were a maid or other servant. Very soon they hired Marta’s sister, Ana, to be their housekeeper. Mom also hired Raquel to teach her to speak Spanish.

 

Their new church was a massive building in one of the poorest neighborhoods. It had huge Roman columns in front and sat at the top of a tall broad staircase. It was more like a cathedral than a church. The people were welcoming on Sunday morning, although there weren’t many children. The congregation was largely made up of British expatriates with heavy accents. The American Ambassador was a member of the church, which was kind of cool. There was no  Sunday school program like at home.

 

Milk was very expensive in Uruguay. They couldn’t drink the water because of contamination. So often the children drank pop and Mom and Dad drank wine with dinner. When they went out to eat they noticed that many parents allowed their children to drink wine as well.

 

It was customary to take a siesta in the middle of the day. All the stores and businesses closed from noon until 2 pm. Dinner time was usually around 10 o’clock at night.

 

There were no grocery stores. There were street fairs that traveled to different neighborhoods on different days.  At each stall you could buy produce, housewares, and even pets. There was a bakery and butcher store for bread and meat.

 

The children were enrolled in the British Schools. They had to wear school uniforms. They were dark green and white and included a neck tie and brown shoes. Doug and Brian had gray wool pants.

 

The first school year passed quickly and both Dru and Doug were signed up for summer camp.

The girls stayed in tents with one counselor and 5 girls of the same age in each. One night when she was getting into bed there was a tarantula on the side of the tent right above her bed! She screamed, and when the other girls saw it, they did too. One of the male counselors had them leave the tent and then “took care of it.” He told them that the tarantulas communicated with each other, and that as that one died he told the others to stay out of the tent. He told the girls that no other spider would dare go in there. Dru didn’t really believe him, but she wanted to. 

 

Another night, the only food offered for dinner was huge kettles full of steamed mussels. Dru didn’t like seafood, but had never tasted mussels. The counselors told her it tasted just like chicken. It didn’t, and she went to bed hungry. She was happy when it was time for Mom and Dad to pick her up.

 

When school started again, Dru joined Doug in the secondary section of the school. They rode an old run down school bus that belched exhaust whenever the driver shifted gears. She soon tried to sit next to an older student named Tara. She was the older sister of Doug’s friend Meno. They were from Holland. Tara wore make up and was the only person Dru knew that could make her school uniform look stylish. On the way home from school each day, Tara would put on pink frosted lipstick and darken the eyeshadow on her eyelids. Dru was fascinated, and wanted to wear make up, too. 

 

British schools have prefects, like in Harry Potter. There were weekly general assemblies and the students were divided up into their assigned “House.”  Each assembly began by singing “God Save The Queen” and the Uruguayan National Anthem, which begins, “ The homeland or the tomb, Liberty or die with glory” in Spanish. Dru had no idea what the Spanish words meant, but did her best to sing along. The prefects were watching, and she didn’t want to get in trouble.

 

Mom decided to begin a Camp Fire Girls counsel in Uruguay. Possibly because she wanted to be able to connect Dru with other American and English speaking girls her age.

 

Dad continued to take time off in the summer. The family went camping out in the country. As they drove down the rural roads black shapes hopped in front of the car. They were tarantulas! One morning as they gathered the blankets and tarps they had slept on there was a scorpion under where Dru had slept.  Later she found out how poisonous they are.

 

Dru’s favorite vacation was when they drove to Paraguay and Brazil. They visited Iguazu Falls.

The family arrived at the hotel, and as soon as they checked in they decided to go see the falls.

They could hear the roaring water almost immediately. After walking through the woods, the forest finally opened up. In front of them was a wall of falling water up to the sky. It was like a mountain was scooped out with a huge ice cream scoop and never ending sheets of water continued to crash against the rocks below. Dru had never seen anything so beautiful and powerful. You can see photos here: https://iguazufalls.com/national-park/   and here: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/303/ 

 

The hotel was unique as well, because the surrounding forest was full of giant parrots that perched on the lounges around the pool. Mom bought jewelry, mantillas, and amazing embroidered cloth from the local women.”

 

Unfortunately, this castle no longer exists. The church sold the property and it was torn down. A resort now sits where it once was. I had many adventures in the castle and in the surrounding neighborhoods with my brothers. Not many people can say they lived in a castle and learned to play the piano on a Steinway Grand.