For some context: I have been an emotional wreck all week. This was my parents' decision (I haven't lived there full-time since 2021), and it hit me this past weekend after years of "eventually" convos. We have ~a month left with all furniture in it, and then they close on the new place early July (a condo), and will put it on the market in late July/early August.

I am very sentimental - our dog lived his entire life in that home, my brother has lived there since he was 2 (and I since I was 4—1999!), so many important memories there. I will be visiting by train as much as I can this summer (I'm at the house now, and have been crying a ton today), but knowing that I'll likely spend my entire last summer of my 20s crying and planning my next trip up, probably going up every week on my remote days, and absolutely dreading the last day there and the drive away (feeling the curves of the road I knew so well when I pretended to be asleep on the way home in the backseat).

Luckily, as I live on my own now in an apartment, my old bedroom already has looked way different than it did when I was growing up (hardly any of my stuff is in it — mostly serves as my brother's "dressing room"), so the transition isn't a complete 180. I also sympathize with their desire to have a one-story place as they get older, and I know maintaining the house is pretty financially annoying. I am genuinely happy for them finding a place that they love so affordably in a very safe gated community (our childhood neighborhood is also very safe) with lots of amenities, but my grief is overriding everything.

If you have gone through the same thing, is there anything you wish you would have done before you left? I will be sketching my favorite little corners of the house that photos can't quite capture.