Despite having arrived at the residence earlier that morning, by Monday afternoon, Bill Bihlmire had already comfortably settled into the lake house he was renting out for the week.

Walking down the side of the house on his way down to the backyard patio, the South Bend man noticed a particular tree that caught his attention, stirring up memories of an adolescence long passed.

“I remember that tree,” he said. “I used to use it for target practice.”

This fact did not surprise him, though, considering how he spent most of childhood growing up within the confines of the three-story house where he was staying, situated on the shore of Little Crooked Lake in Sister Lakes.

Bihlmire, along with siblings Lynn Timmons and Pat Green returned to their childhood abode this week, their children and grandchildren in tow, for a family reunion spanning three generations.

The three siblings haven’t been together at the house in more than 50 years, they said.

“We’re lucky to all still be alive and able to come back to our childhood home,” Bihlmire said. “Being back here brings back a lot of memories.”

They moved into the house, situated on County Road 690, after Green’s father, Chuck Keating, purchased the property in 1951. The three lived together in the house for years, along with their mother, Ruth, and Bihlmire’s and Timmons’ father, Otto.

“It was wonderful living here,” Timmons said. “Those were the best times of our lives.”

Between daily classes at Sister Lakes Elementary and Dowagiac High School, the three devoted their time to activities that only teenagers growing up in the resort community could do: swimming and fishing on the lake, enjoying live music, roller skating at Ramona Roller Rink and enjoying an frosty ice cream cones from Driftwood.

“Nobody could of have had a better place to grow up as teens than Sister Lakes,” Green said. “Everything was so pure and natural out here.”

Slowly but surely, though, the kids began to drift away from their Crooked Lake home: Green moved out in 1958, moving to South Bend after getting married; Timmons was next, in 1961, also after getting married; finally, Bihlmire left in 1965 with their mother, also heading to South Bend.

Over the next four decades, the siblings would spread out even further, with Timmons and her husband, David, moving out to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Green moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Their childhood home also changed ownership over the years, eventually being turned into a resort destination by current owners Jeff and Kim Miller.

After so many years away from the residence and each other, a stroke of luck brought them all together again. While looking online for a place to vacation in his beloved childhood home, Bihlmire saw a listing that looked quite familiar, he said.

“I saw a picture of one of the homes available for rental and I said to myself, ‘hey, that’s where I grew up,’” he said.

After letting them know his discovery, the three siblings planned a massive weeklong family reunion, wanting to share the sights, smells and sounds of the lake they cherished so many years ago with the rest of the family.

“For all of us to come back here with our kids and grandkids, it’s like a dream come true,” Green said.

While the three have shed a lot of tears of joy since returning to the house, the occasion has also been bittersweet for Green. Her husband of 40 years, Jack, passed away one month ago, she said.

“He would have loved to have seen the place,” she said.

Despite that, she and her extended family have come from all over the country, bonding over old photographs, family stories and cherished memories from years spent by the calm waters of Crooked Lake.

“This is the chance of a lifetime,” Bihlmire said. “How many people have the opportunity to go back to where they grew up with their entire family?”