The advertisement simply stated, “Wanted–valet for large household. Must love animals.” Desperate for a job, Edwin Thorpe responded and was immediately accepted. A train ticket arrived within a week for the evening departure to Darkshire the following Friday with no further instructions. Now he stood at the train depot, small satchel in hand, about to be greeted by two very strange men.The advertisement simply stated, “Wanted – valet for large household. Must love animals.” Desperate for a job, Edwin Thorpe responded and was immediately accepted. A train ticket arrived within a week for the evening departure to Darkshire the following Friday. There were no further instructions. Now he stood at the train depot, a small satchel in hand, about to be greeted by two very strange men in long, dark capes.Edwin had been a valet for almost forty years, trained by his father’s cousin in the art of caring for the rich, yet in all the years he had been a valet, no one had ever asked so little of him. He had never been privy to such an unusual employer. Parties went on until early dawn, Lord Darkshire and his Russian Wolfhounds went hunting late at night and staff spoke in low whispers. All in all, Edwin Thorpe wasn’t quite certain what to make of it.

Trying to recreate a family tradition when my Grandfather took me with him to cut down and carry home the family Christmas tree, my children and I would traipse out to our local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. Our tradition culminated in the Christmas my friends and family still refer to as the year of "The Mother Lode" tree. Laugh and cry at an attempt to preserve childhood memories.Trying to recreate a family tradition when my Grandpa Shorty took me with him to cut down and carry home the family Christmas tree, proved more difficult than I thought. Each year my children and I would traipse out to our local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree, deck it with ribbons and bows as identifiers, then come back to cut it down in time for Christmas. Each year our Christmas tree got taller and wider. Our family tradition culminated in the Christmas my friends and family still refer to as the year of the “Mother Lode Tree”.