Why I'm Selling My Camp on East Grand Lake

Someone should enjoy the beauty of this lake as much as I do.

I really don't want to sell my camp on the East Grand Lake. In fact it's in my DNA to be here on East Grand Lake.   I guess I should explain why but to understand my story you must realize my history.



My grandfather came to Maine and bought property on the Dark Cove Road, what was soon to be called Pat and Dee Vecchio's Big Mamu, a hunting lodge right on East Grand Lake.  He built many camps, with his sons, Orland, Mike and Brian while my mother Cynthia helped cook and clean them with her mother Dee.    Winters were for my grandfather taking the hunters hunting while my grandmother made sure they had great lodging and dinners.

My grandfather was a builder in Baltimore by trade, and our primary residence was always in the big city. It wasn't uncommon for them to spend vacations and summers on the lake .Soon Pat and Dee would meet the wonderful John and Ardis Hayman, and Oris and Florence Bragdon (Ardis' parents), whom they would befriend.


When Pat took ill with cancer, my grandmother made the hard decision to sell the lakefront which my family loved so much.  It was my Uncle Orland Vecchio that handled the sale of the camps and property to what is now Living Waters, selling for a song, and for the greater good. It now allows underpriveleged children from all around the world to have a summer bible camp and enjoy the beauty my family did for so long.  

My mother never forgot that place, how could she? She would soon be coming back to that very spot only staying with the Haymans in their camp for years on the very same cove, looking at her father's camps while the children at Living Waters enjoyed them as much as she once did.   She would  enjoy each summer on East Grand Lake fishing, boating, water skiing, with her cousin Becky.

When I was little I remember each and every summer two to four weeks at the Hayman's and gardening with Florence and Oris, canning fresh veggies from their garden.  The Bragdon's owned the Bragdon's general store and Mr. John Hayman worked as Postmaster.  Much time I spent in Maine, and these are some of my best memories in life, and two people I love so very much.

Then we would also come up in the winter.  Soon Mom and her new husband Dan would have my brother and we would be a regular on the lake.  Soon the Bragdons would pass and their store would be taken over by someone else. (The store is still standing but lies vacant now.) 

By the time I was 18, my stepfather had a successful career as a Master Trim Carpenter in Maryland and much work. Mom decided to sell it all and move to Maine full time from Baltimore. I suppose that was foolish to some, as my stepfather was barely 40.  They built their dream house but sooner after sinking most of their money into it realized the economy in a small town with a fraction of the population of a big city like Baltimore would be really hard to find work in.  On top of that, my mother and stepfather were alcoholics, and the next two decades would be a very difficult time for them keeping afloat, even with the help of family and friends.

In 2007 my stepfather found me the most lovely camp on the lake, just a few miles from Mom's. The camp belonged to Don and Jean Sanborn, you can read more about that here.  My husband and I bought the camp, got married in 2008 on the lake on our property but hardly get here because our work is in the summer. It's very difficult having a summer home you can't enjoy, boats you can't use, because my husband works in 8 states selling barbecue at fairs and festivals and is under contracts from year to year. If he doesn't go, he loses these contracts and that is our livelihood. We kept thinking we could take a week off here or there, but it's not working out for us.  So we would come for the month of November and be happy about that.

Until 2010.  I came up for three months to be with my mom while she was battling rectal cancer.   Fast forward to December 2010, when I lost my mom after a successful cancer operation, she passed that night in the hospital.   My whole world has changed. With her home being right around the corner, it's too hard for me to stay here without her. I know Mom would want me to be happy, but it's hard.

It's also hard coming up to your camp once per year.  Mr. Sanborn has taken good care of it for us, but it's hard not enjoying something you spend so much to maintain.

Now, the last person I love in this town, is fighting for her life. After a ten year battle with bone marrow cancer, she has decided to stop her treatments and spend the rest of her days in her camp.  I knew it was time for me to sell this place.  Everyone I love here is gone. This place is not the same to me. But perhaps for someone who can fall in love with this lake like my family did, you can start your own memories and make your own history, and it will be a happy and loving place. There is so much love here.  Perhaps it is just that I can't deal with the memories as happy as they may be, it pains me to be in a place so beautiful without those I love. 

Someone else should be able to enjoy this place as much as I once did.