In 2002, Jim built a playhouse for our two-year-old granddaughter, Emma. Emma and her mom and dad didn’t live close by, but Emma came to stay with us for a week or two every summer, and we wanted her to have her own special place. Emma and I played games, ate cookies, and drank lemonade in that little playhouse for several years, but Emma grew up, and in later summers, it was used less often.

The little house was showing its age, and had some water and insect damage, so last fall, Jim dismantled it, and all that is left in the spot where it once stood is a slate walkway and a small curved flowerbed of daffodils and irises that once decorated the side of the playhouse.

A single “New Dawn” rosebush also lives in the little garden bed. We moved it from another garden soon after the playhouse was built. Fragrant pink roses bloom every spring and summer, despite a minimum of care. It looks tired and ragged now, so after about thirty years of service, it will be retired and replaced w...