Dear Future Home Owners

I wrote a letter to tell potential buyers that come to look at our house how very wonderful it is to live here.  This was easy to write, but very hard to read to my father.  I started to cry when I began reading the paragraph about how special my neighbors are, and Daddy said, "Baby, maybe you should stay there!"  He loves the nature and wildlife that we are offered on a daily basis here and wishes he could have all of this.

My letter sits on the kitchen counter and is exactly (including picture) as follows:

Dear Future Home Owners,

Our community is woodsy and far enough away to have a country feel, but with the convenience of a good variety of stores, restaurants and new expressways nearby.  Our roof and air conditioner are both new.  Our home is quiet and offers total privacy.  ALL of the neighbors are wonderful and ours is a happy street!

Next door (on the pool side of the house) lives Kyle and her two big teenage sons.  The boys are quiet and polite.  I sometimes hire them to help with heavy moving.  They get their sweetness from their mother.  I will miss my conversations with Kyle through the fence in the mornings.  You will rarely see or hear their dog, Scooby Do, who is a giant chicken.

The house on the street side of us belongs to Chris, Leslie and their four very polite and well-behaved children that vary in age from first grade to middle school.  Leslie is a doll, patient and kind.  She teaches summer swimming lessons and, if you are outside, you may hear her praising a toddler for “kick-kick-kicking”.  Chris is a model father, a total gentleman.  He coaches his children’s baseball teams and you will regularly see him playing with the kids.  They have a small white dog named Tebow who, with one deep “woof” invites our little dog out to play.  (He potties in his own yard – not ours.)

Every morning I wake up before daybreak, grab a cup of coffee, and make a bee-line for the back porch.  Birds are chirping their morning song and a soft breeze blows through the woods.  Sometimes I can hear the far off whistle of a train or a rooster crowing.  This morning I heard turkeys, clucking as they woke from their roost in the top of an oak out front near the pond.  It is not uncommon to see 7-8 deer parade past, just beyond the state park fence line, stopping to munch a leaf or two before moseying on their way.  One neighborhood doe, affectionately named Tripod, has a bent front leg that has been this way since birth.  She is healthy, is able to run and leap, and has a new fawn every year.  Three squirrels frequent the Queen Ann Palms, feasting on its tiny coconut fruit.  Stumpy, the short tailed boy, frantically buries nuts all over the back yard, but never has one sprouted into a plant.

The pond out front is spring-fed, but with the (current) lack of rain, the water level does drop, but never empties.  In warmer months you will enjoy a pond-side frog symphony that starts at dusk.  They’re especially happy after a good drenching storm.  You will sometimes see deer (especially Tripod) and turkeys in the front yard.

Our sons had a wonderful childhood growing up in the security of Wekiva Glen and, like my husband and me, they have made lifelong friends here that will be cherished forever.  It breaks our hearts to leave our paradise, but with aging parents and the rest of our family in Jacksonville, we feel the need to be near during their twilight years.

Very Sincerely Yours,

Marty Watson