I am a first-time homeowner finally, at age 57 years and 8 months. I have accomplished the overarching goal of my life.

I believe that a man should be appraised within the context of his entire life.

Because of many life exigencies (not just financial), I have not heretofore been able to own, or co-own a home.

My parents never owned a home. There has never been one day in my life that I haven’t actively yearned for a home.

This milestone evokes memories…I was first made a ward of the state at age 2; and I grew up in a children’s home through high school graduation. I have paid for my education and for everything I’ve ever had in my life. I did not qualify for military service and the benefits thereof.

My first “real” job, on a payroll, was as a nursing assistant earning 75 cents an hour, at age 14, in 1966. I have been paying into social security and income taxes ever since. (44 years). My first job as a physician assistant, nearly 2 decades ago, earned me $28,000 per year.

I bought my first car, a 1965 VW, at age 16. Remarkably the social worker, (I’ll never forget his name: Ira McIntyre) co-signed my bank note. But I paid every dime for that car, including insurance, taxes and maintenance. The reason that the children’s home let me buy the car was so that I could transport myself to work, where skilled nursing home patients, and later children, were under my direct care and responsibility.

Now I have bought a modest, “Energy Star Certified” home. I saved enough to put 20% down on a conventional (bank), 15-year mortgage. My credit score is over 800.

In 2003, I wrote and published Hestia’s House, a literary memoir with the overarching theme of “home.” And I would have spent my last dollar and my last breath to do that, so important was it to me to say what I had to say. On page 260, I wrote these words:

“Now after all this, I am still searching for my external home, and I know I am very close. I think about it all the time. I can see it, inside and out, very clearly in my mind’s eye. I will name my home “Hestia’s House,” after the Greek goddess of the hearth, and if I write this, it will come.”

And now finally; this day has come to me.

Blaine
March 23, 2010