The Road That Finally Led Home

JOURNAL ENTRY #1 - SUNDAY - JUNE 14, 2026

Some dreams arrive exactly when we plan them.

Others take a detour.

In May of 2022, my husband and I purchased what would become The Union House of Hogarth.  At the time, it was meant to be our vacation home and eventually our retirement home, with hopes of making the permanent move by 2024.

Life, however, had other plans.

My position at work evolved into a leadership role, pushing our retirement timeline back another year.  When retirement finally came in 2025, we spent two wonderful weeks settling into our new chapter.  I established LHogarth Creative Living, LLC, obtained my EIN, opened my business account, and began laying the foundation for the creative life I had dreamed about.

Then everything changed.

I received the phone call no parent ever wants to hear.

My son had been admitted to the hospital with double pneumonia, septic shock, and doctors did not expect him to survive.

Without hesitation, we packed up and returned to Florida.  My place was beside him.

By the grace of God, he survived.

His recovery came with unimaginable loss.  He lost both of his legs below the knees and all of the fingers on both hands.  Already living with Common Variable Immune Deficiency, he had since been re-diagnosed with Combined Immune Deficiency, a rare condition that leaves him without the antibodies and immune cells most of us take for granted.

But if you met him today, you would see determination before disability.

Over the past ten months, he has worked tirelessly through rehabilitation, receives monthly immunoglobulin infusions, is transitioning into his second set of prosthetic legs, drives independently again, and has even begun helping with staging work he once loved.

Doctors believed he would require lifelong caregiving.

Instead, he chose perseverance.

As his mother, watching him reclaim his independence has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.  Every bird eventually leaves the nest, and somehow mine has done it twice.

With his strength returning, my season of “Mama Bird” has gently come to a close.

Now, after countless miles between Florida and South Carolina, business registrations, medical appointments, moving trucks, paperwork, and one very tired pickup that somehow managed one final journey, we’ve finally arrived.

My residency has officially changed.

We welcomed a reliable 2015 GMC Sierra into the family.

And most importantly, The Union House of Hogarth is finally home.

There will still be another trip or two to finish bringing everything north, but this chapter is different.  This one is permanent.

As I begin this daily journal, I hope to share not only projects and paintings, gardens and homemaking, but also the ordinary moments that remind us how much beauty can grow through unexpected seasons.

Sometimes the destination isn’t delayed because you’re lost.

Sometimes it’s delayed because the story needs another chapter.

Welcome to ours.

LHogarth