I had flashbacks of letting Ian pick the present color of the room--his room--the room that has been all but empty for a couple of months. He wanted a sports room. We had a wallpaper border with all different kinds of sports balls on it--vintage balls in muted colors. He picked the lightest highlight color on the basketball. It was a good choice we both liked. We found old Red Sox and Raiders pennants. We hung antique badminton racquets on the wall with a tattered birdie. The rod across the top of the window was a hockey stick. There were baseball cards framed on the wall--Pete Rose and Johnny Bench; Jim Palmer and Steve Garvey; even Hank Aaron.
Ian was almost 9 when we moved into this house. He decided that it would be fun to share his room with his 3 year old brother. They picked the smaller bedroom because it had a walk-in closet they could play in. It was the first room in the house to be painted and decorated.
About a year and a half ago Mikey moved out into the gameroom. They were having a hard time and we figured Ian "the teenager" needed some privacy. Mikey also needed some time free from his third parent. So, even though there was no door on Mikey's space, it did give them both some distance. Pretty ironic now that they needed distance.
It was obvious to Mikey that mind was elsewhere today. He asked at Home Depot why I was getting so tense. We brought the paint home and dove in. He was a great helper. I wish I could've kept my mind off what we were really doing--covering up Ian. I thought (and still do) that it will be much easier for Mikey to move back into the room he shared with his big brother if it looks completely different. It will be like a totally new room with no memories--visual ones anyway. I hope bright blue makes Mikey happy in there. It just made me blue.
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