As we walked around the grounds, peeking into the old buildings, studying old-style animal enclosures and puzzling over the farm machinery, I felt a lump growing in my throat that I could not explain. I kept thinking what a treasure we'd found, what a wonderful experience we were having. It felt as though we were on hallowed ground, and a stifling feeling of heartache stayed with me.
Since then, I've been pondering why I had such a flood of emotion just walking around looking at "old stuff." I've decided that what I was feeling that day was the fading echoes of the hopes, the dreams, the struggles and the lives of the people who inhabited the past.
