When our son was a toddler, my husband and I devoted countless hours to painting his childhood bedroom with colorful pictures of many of Disney’s most-beloved characters. We had Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto to start and saved room to add more as our son found new characters to love.
By the time our son hit his teens, he was ready for a change. The thought of covering the paintings my husband and I did all of those years ago just about broke my heart, but we agreed our son needed his own adult space. My husband, who loved the paintings almost as much as I did, suggested that we give our son the guest room, redone to his taste of course, and we could have a little more time with what we had affectionately dubbed “The Disney Den.”
The Disney Den soon became a combination home office and sewing room. When our son was home from college, he spent many hours pouring over books and papers in that room, rather than the man cave we had turned the guest room into for him. Visitors loved seeing that room and it was always the cheeriest place in our home.
When it came time for my husband and I to move, our real estate agent recommended painting over the Disney characters, but we wouldn’t do it. We sold the house without a problem and for years wondered what the new owners did with that room, assuming they had painted it over at some point. When we were driving through our old neighborhood last year, we took the chance and stopped to see our old house. The new owner was outside mowing the lawn, but invited us in. The kitchen I once thought was so cute and homey was now a stainless steel and granite masterpiece. We had separate living and family rooms that the current owner had knocked out a wall to combine into one large open space. I thought for certain the old Disney room had gone through a similar transformation, but was pleasantly surprised to see Mickey and Donald greeting me as the door to our son’s former bedroom opened.
I’m sure the new owner of our old house thought I was a little crazy when I started crying a bit, but upon seeing our art on the walls, inspired by our family’s love for Disney’s classic movies, I couldn’t help but feel a little flood of happy memories there.
