1505 Pleasant Street

Thursday I went over to talk to Martha, Kevin's and my former landlady. I missplaced a couple of cake pans and thought I might have left them in the oven in my apartment when I left there. One other time I checked the cabinets and drawers but failed to check the oven. There wasn't a whole lot of cabinet space and so I could have stuck them there out of sight. Martha told me that the building had been sold to a young couple who will move the building and then refurbish it. It has been vacant for a few years now as we were all required to leave after the city inspector, a new one on the job, closed down the house. As unusual or bad the house was, I think we were all sad to go.

This was Kevin's first apartment. I think his was the worst one in the place. When I moved out here in August '01 I moved upstairs to the vacant apartment just over Kevin's. Well, I could tell stories about the place but there isn't the time. Kevin did move up the street to 1721 Pleasant and then to 1808 Pleasant. Again ,I don't know whether at any point in Kevin's life he would have had fond memories of his first apartment, we'll never know, but I think he would have. I certainly have fond memories since it was my first residence in Des Moines and I lived upstairs from Kevin. I walk by the house often on my walks and many times I'll go and sit on the porch for a few minutes and imagine and remember Kevin coming and going almost thinking that perhaps I could turn back the hands of time and any minute now he'll be coming over the hill on his way home from Flanagan's.

I talked to Martha. I don't know whether she knows Kevin is gone. She would certainly recognize him if she saw him as she did me. For the longest time I didn't want to stop as I was afraid she would ask about Kevin but she didn't. I'll always remember when I was putting in my application to live there and didn't even have a job yet, she said that the only reference I needed was that I was Kevin's mother. That was good enough for her.

Wilbur, her husband is gone, sad to say. He was 96 and died in February she said. She said it has been really difficult and sometimes it doesn't even seem real that he is gone. I wanted to say I know exactly how she is feeling, as much of the time the fact that Kevin is gone doesn't seem to be real to me, but I didn't say anything. As I said I don't know whether she knows or not. Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think she does know as She would have said what a wonderful young man he was. I can just hear her as she never hesitated to compliment and praise him.

So it's going to be really sad when they move the house away. I think it still will be in the Sherman Hill area she said. It supposedly is the oldest house around. Whether it's worth renovating, I don't know, but it won't be the same house that Kevin and I shared at 1505 Pleasant Street.