Left the family home for the last time after 53 years. Very sad.

[LostWithoutMum]

Mum died in 2023 and we finally sold her house. The family home since I was born. Left it for the last time today.

I feel totally empty and lost.

It’s horrible isn’t it? We had to do the same. Dad died in 2021 we sold after 18 months. I really felt it as the house is in Ireland but I live in the uk so it was always my base when I went back. I still feel like I have no base now which is ridiculous but I always felt comfortable there.

Hugs op, I’m so sorry, make sure you take and catch a breath x

Your family home will be safe forever in your heart and in your memory OP.
You don't have to be walking the floorboards, touching the walls or gazing out the windows to remember the love and the fun, the sad times and the joy that you felt growing up with your DM and family.
Your beloved family home is bricks and mortar.
A home is only a home when the people you love are inside it.
No matter how far away you are you will always be able to revisit your home in your memory and see again the images of those you have loved in the home that will never change as long as you remember it.♥️

Had this a few years ago.😢

M&D lived there for their whole 60+yr marriage, Ddad died there and although Dmum tried to live there alone, it was just too large and unmanageable (she was in declining health by this time). We kept the house when my Dmum was in a care home and rented it out to help with costs.
When Dmum died we sold our own house and moved in while our new house was being built.

It was strange living in the house/village I had grown up in and while nice in some ways, with the family gone it was never going to be the same.
Tears when we finally moved out but as they say, time is a great healer.

This is lovely and beautifully comforting.

I had a bit of a fainting wobbly feeling when I came out of my mum’s house and saw the for sale sign had been put up. Totally ridiculous but also totally spontaneous. It’ is very sad. I had to really steel myself when it finally sold and I had to drop the keys off at the estate agents and I will never go down that street again.

That’s no help to you but you’re not alone

When Mum died this happened to me and my sisters. I'd advise don't go back. I live away and in my mind it's still exactly as it was when I grew up in it. One of my sister's lives nearby to Mums old house and she rang me one day on tears. The new owners had dug up Mum lovely flower beds and slabbed over the entire garden. My sister says she wishes she'd never seen it like that because now she can't unsee it. On the last day in Mums house we took a photo of me and my siblings sitting on the stairs. Eldest on higher step and going down in age order.

Oh gosh, I’m sorry OP. I’m absolutely dreading that moment when it comes.

I know it won’t help but try and think about how very lucky you’ve been to have one happy childhood home, it’s the stuff of fairytales.

Oh that's hard.

Can you think about how it will provide a lovely home for a new family in the future?

I live in the same town. I won't need to go by it though. It needs complete renovation so I know it will change. Tbh I'm seriously thinking of moving away.

Sending a hug.

We had the same. We were all born there and it had been in the family for over 60 years. I took pictures of all the rooms and made a book.
I rarely go past . They've dug up my parents much loved front garden and concreted it over.
It's hard isn't it.

It's tough. When we sold my father's place in South London after his death he'd lived in it for just under 60 years. I'd never known anywhere else as the family home.

I still go and look at it from time to time on Google Earth.

It’s horrible isn’t it. We sold my gran’s house last year after a year waiting for the sale to go through. The family had owned it since it was built in 1901. It sold to a landlord who made it into a bland white box. The outside does look nicer now as it had started to look unkempt and the buyer did the work before he actually completed on the house so we saw that in person.

I haven’t been back and haven’t even driven past since it completed. My mum only lives 15mins away and she hasn’t been back either.

It’s a horrible feeling isn’t it?

I took it really hard, like literally selling a lifetime of memories (my mom and dad lived in one house all their lives).
No one really understood, I never had the chance to do one final ‘walk through’ to say goodbye before I completed and it crops up in my dreams at least once a week so I guess on some level I can’t get past it.

I totally get how you feel. I've lost my mum and dad across the past two years and, as a result, the family home is currently 'sold STC'. I live 300 miles away so when I went home for my dad's funeral earlier this year I knew it was likely the last time I would be in the house. I always saw it as a safety net - the place I could run to if I needed to, the place full of memories, the place that represented both of them, the place I always knew there was love and kindness. Without it I feel like my 'anchor' has been taken away.

I snuck back in the day after the funeral when I knew I would be alone, without my siblings and before I drove home, for one last look around - I knew that it was goodbye and it completely floored me. Whilst it is still on Rightmove I have little looks every now and again - its not quite the same though because all the rooms have been emptied for the photos. I don't think anyone else understands - my siblings are all a lot older than me and they didn't grow up in the house so whilst it reminds them of mum & dad, it isn't 'home' in the same way.

We are going through something similar. I've found it comforting to imagine someone else beginning their story in the family home. They have years ahead of them that I hope will be happy, and maybe in 50 years' time they'll be feeling sad too, then the next lot will arrive and begin their chapter.

Yes - I have also comforted myself with this thought. It is time for the house to have a new family who love it as much as we did.

We are selling my Nans house and it’s sad to see it now empty and on the market. It’s been the ‘family’ home for over 60 years.
Im trying to look at it like the house deserves a new family in it now to start making their memories. The house has done a wonderful job for us and given us so much and now it’s time for it to do the same for someone else.

I went through this two years ago. My parents are still alive but they downsized in their late 80s and sold the family home we'd lived in since 1974. It was a very strange feeling. They moved to a different town and I now have no connections left in the town where I grew up.

Don’t look for it on Rightmove or Mouseprice in a few years time

we found my childhood home and it had been butchered.

We are due to complete on my parents’ home next week. DF died many years ago and DM has dementia so has been in a care home for two years.
It’s very mixed feelings for me as my siblings and I were born there and grew up there. But on the other hand it’s been a tie to have to check in on it and get the grass cut etc, and it’s been a house not a home since DM left, an empty shell. A couple with a baby are buying it and she would be pleased to see it become a family home again.
Interesting what others have said about not going past. It’s not far from my house and literally round the corner from my sister’s so will be hard although not impossible to avoid. It does need renovating and modernising so part of me is intrigued to see what the new owners do while another part wants to remember it as it is.