Relative Comfort

"We lost my father in '97, two days before Thanksgiving, of a massive heart attack," Kevin says. "He was only 66. Things changed a lot when he passed. Then my Aunt Betty's husband passed, and the neighborhood really changed."

His grandfather's death, he says, further altered the generational balance. But it all remained in the family until a few months ago. In December, one of Kevin's elderly aunts moved to Virginia to be close to her children and sold her house to an outsider. At the time, no Lethbridge relative was in a position to buy her house, Kevin says. One grandchild had already moved into his great-grandparents' home. Another had agreed to take over the home of Aunt June, who died last summer.

Aunt Shirley's move to Virginia took the family by surprise, Kevin says, adding that the woman who bought her home intends to use it as a guesthouse rather than a residence.

"It's right across from my mother's house," he says. "It's definitely going to be different."

And the sale is enough to spur thoughts about how else the neighborhood might change. What about the next generation? There are 14 grandchildren -- seven boys and seven girls -- who range in age from 7 to 28. Their allegiance to the family compound is uncertain.

"The whole family might pick up and go somewhere else," Lynn says. "That has been talked about."

Kevin says that his generation of Lethbridges has explored the notion of one day resettling in a place such as Asheville, N.C., if everyone decided to move. But Danny, the oldest of Kevin and Lynn's three children, doesn't want to hear it. He wants to live in the neighborhood and teach history at Paint Branch High after college. As he talks about his plans, the 17-year-old senior wears the satisfied expression of someone who just played five pickup games of volleyball and two games of ultimate Frisbee.

"I love it here," he says. "There's always someone around to do something with. And there's always something to do."

Halloween means trick-or-treating at about a dozen houses, some of them done up like real graveyards. In the summer, the cousins play flashlight tag and go swimming at night. In the winter, they sled down the hill guided by moonlight and maybe a bonfire.

There are plenty of lessons about self-reliance: If it snows, the Lethbridges plow out the neighborhood. The time Uncle Hal's house caught fire at 1:30 a.m., Danny's dad grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the blaze before the fire department arrived.

And there's something else. The Lethbridges hold on to their marriages the way they do their land. Kevin says he can't think of any Lethbridge who has gotten a divorce.

"When my friends come over here, they feel really happy," says Deanna, Danny's 15-year-old sister. "Most of them have divorced families. Either they don't have brothers and sisters, or they're not living with them."