Heritage Trail: Mesa

communing with cactus

My paternal grandparents lived in Mesa, Arizona, from the late 1950s until the 1990s.  I remember visiting their home as a child, and so returning there last Easter was special. We attended church at their ward and met some of their old friends who reminisced about being in Anna's Cub Scout troop, and TP-ing their house one night while Wally and Anna just watched, smiling, from behind the window curtains.  As we stopped by their home, the owner was kind enough to let me wander through and see how things had changed (he owns an exotic reptile business, so the cage collection alone was enough to feel pretty different there).

Anna's handwritten list of places she's lived

the Mesa chapel which my dad, uncle, and grandpa helped build

Green Acres Cemetery, Scottsdale AZ

Wally & Anna's headstones

their first house at 237 Drew Street

1028 W 11th Street

the driveway with some additions

the familiar palm trees out back--smaller than I'd remembered

the old laundry room off to the side of the house

Anna's same pink oven!

the covered patio

patio view

the back yard (now with reptile cages)

the family room shelves--where I first discovered Anna's genealogy papers

the family room

the kitchen

kitchen view

the living room

ice cream in Wally's honor