One last view from the 12th floor

Dark clouds on the horizon
Laval, QC
November 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

You probably won't be seeing many more photos like this one.

I've stood on this 12th floor balcony countless times, my lens pointed west toward similarly countless sunsets. Behind me, just inside the sliding glass patio door, my in-laws waited patiently, alongside my wife, kids, and whoever else happened to be in town.

I'd often step outside during mealtime, or playtime, or anytime the sun was putting on a show in the sky. My in-laws knew the drill, and would review my photos carefully on the camera when I was done.

Then we'd get back to the business of eating dinner or playing, or whatever else went on in a home that was always full, always open and welcoming to whoever happened to be in town.

Today, the apartment is almost empty, and my wife works, alone in the fading light, sorting through the very last of my late father-in-law's files.

There's no furniture. The walls are bare. Virtually all signs of the vibrant family that once called this place home have been either sold, moved, or tossed. It was just stuff, I tell myself, but it still feels wrong to see this place in this way.

I stand in the breezy chill on the balcony under a sky that refuses to cooperate. The for sale sign is already up, and this will likely be my last-ever time here. We leave in the morning. I will the clouds to part, the sun to peek out one last time so I'll have a final sunset to hold onto.

Mother Nature obviously has other plans. But nothing erases the memories of what happened here, and the people who made a concrete box in the sky a home.

So I shoot the grey scene before stepping back inside and locking the glass doors behind me.

I tell myself it's been a good house, and I've been blessed to have been a part of the stories we told here. We all have.

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