Hello, Neighbor

Written by Nancy Nelson Vines

"There's no place like home," Dorothy tells Aunty Em, and for Pat Myers those words resonate to a place deep within her.

"I left Puxico in 1963, after finishing my eighth grade year.  I had gone to school there since third grade, and felt a real connection to my classmates," she explains.  As anyone who has attended a small school knows, the friendships forged there are special because everyone in class is your friend. 

"Every school day for six years I spent seven hours a day with the same people. Then, I moved to St. Louis and enrolled in Roosevelt High School where I was in a class of 400.  I made friends, of course, but it wasn't the same."

Shortly after finishing high school Pat met her future husband Larry on a church trip to the St. Louis Zoo.  "Larry was from Arnold and had attended school at Mehlville, so we did not know each other.  This was an outing sponsored by several area churches, and he just happened to sit next to me on the bus. He pestered me the entire day," she fondly recalls.  A short time later he asked her out on a date, and six months later they married.  Larry worked for Bell Telephone and was eventually transferred to Houston, Texas. There they lived for the next forty years and raised two daughters.

"I never felt like I was at home," Pat says.  "I don't mean I wasn't happy because we were very happy with our life there, but something inside of me was just a little unsettled."  As thoughts of retirement began to stir, Pat felt a twinge of longing for the place where she felt "at home."

"I began by idly scanning the internet looking at houses and land around Puxico.  I never really thought we would come back to this area," she says in amazement.  "I honestly was only looking."  As she broadened her search to include more of Southeast Missouri, however, she began to think that maybe they could do this. 

"I always told Larry how pretty this area was, with all the wildlife, flowers, and birds.  I remember seeing roadrunners in the cotton rows when I was a little girl chopping cotton.  He also understood my emotional ties, and how happy my school days in Puxico had been."   

Things began to "get real" for Pat when an older home in Bloomfield caught her eye.  The couple made a trip to check it out, purchased the home, and three years later made the move to Southeast Missouri. 

The couple's devotion to their home is obvious, as they have spent much of the past two years updating, refurbishing, and redecorating.  Among Pat's many talents are interior design, sewing, and landscaping. "I am happiest when I am working, and nothing makes me happier that working around my home." 

Through classmates.com and Facebook, Pat has reconnected with many of her old friends. 

"We have been apart for forty years, so it is like starting over to rebuild the friendships we once shared; however, I truly believe that 'connection' is still there," she says. The couple is also busy making new friends in their adopted hometown of Bloomfield. 

Standing in their lovely yard, with yet more plants waiting to be planted, Pat glances around. "This is home," she whispers lovingly.

Shown in the photo is Pat Myers as she pauses beside one of her beloved yard angels in her historic home in Bloomfield, Missouri.