My Boyhood Home is Gone

Here’s how the house I grew up in, from ages 6 to 18, appeared on Google Maps in 2023. My house is the one of the left, the simple two-storey house with dormers; to its right is a new house going up behind it.

Here’s how the house looked—or rather didn’t look, as it was gone—when I drove by last week:

My boyhood home is gone, replaced with a garage for the new house.

My boyhood driveway, my boyhood trees, the boyhood shed where our dog Jake used to sleep at night, they are all still there.

My therapist, who is a spiritual man, suggested that it’s not a coincidence that I happened to drive by the house and discover this now, at a time in my life when I’m evermore grappling with the relationship of my childhood to my adulthood.