There are very few people who get through life without experiencing the death of a loved one. With death, come tough decisions, many in the days immediately following. Others come much later. In many cases, however, time does not make those decisions any easier.

That’s where Greg Purser and Everett Duncan recently found themselves: having to choose between Purser’s childhood home or the home they’ve come to love.

Purser grew up in Chocowinity; his family, owners of a 15-acre ranch. Purser and Duncan are owners of Springhill, the circa 1920 home on Van Norden Street with a sweeping lawn that ends at West Main Street.

Last year, Purser’s stepmother, Brenda, passed away after a battle with ovarian cancer, and the ranch and its land passed to them. Two homes, less than 10 miles away from one another, immediately put Purser and Duncan in the position of making a difficult choice: which one to keep? Which one to sell? Both have much to recommend them, Purser said.

Purser and Duncan have adapted to town living, purchasing Springhill last year, and moving from another historic home in Chocowinity, Winfield. As owners of Oasis Salon and Spa and its upstairs antiques showroom, also called Springhill, as well as offering their Van Norden street home and lawn as an event venue, they love the central location and the simplicity of living in town — as well as coming home to a river view right in the middle of downtown.

Ponderosa has a different place in their hearts, especially for Purser, simply because it was home for many years.

“I think (Duncan has) felt like I need to hold onto it because it holds so many memories,” Purser said.

Some of those memories are good; some are bad. At one point, the property was a center for horse lovers — it housed as many as 20 horses, six or seven of which belonged to the Pursers. Riders brought their horses from miles around to race at Choco Downs, the track, or participate in the trail rides. Purser said they held an annual fall trail ride, each year drawing 300 to 400 people who would spend the weekend camping on the land and riding together during the day. White fences drew boundaries over the land, between pastures, stables and track.

“People always called it our version of Southfork,” Purser said, referencing the Texas ranch featured in the TV show “Dallas,” that ran from 1978 to 1991. “But my dad called it Ponderosa — Charlie Purser’s Ponderosa.”

Charlie Purser bought the property in the late 1970s. He bought the three-bedroom, 1950s-era ranch house because his wife was a horse lover. Her horse, Ghost, came before the ranch, and their previous home didn’t have enough pastureland for him.

“Brenda always said he bought that property for the horse,” Purser laughed.

With the new property, came immersion in equestrian life. They founded the Chocowinity Saddle Club, hosted races at Choco Downs and took their horses on the road to race in Pompano Beach, Florida, and on the beach in Savannah.

It was a good life, but one that also had its share of tragedy: two of Purser’s brothers, Jodie, 11, and Charlie Jay,”CJ,” age 3, both died in tragic accidents within six months of one another when Purser was a young man. Charlie Purser died 10 years later. For Purser, the memories of his young brothers’ deaths, of his stepmother’s strength in picking herself up after losing two children and a husband, but going on to start her own business, are intrinsically tied to the Ponderosa and his attachment to it.

“Part of me thinks I should put it in the past, but then I’ll go out there and remember the good times,” Purser said. “(Brenda) was such a strong person. It was her home — she loved it there.”

Unable to make a choice between life on the Ponderosa and life at Springhill, Purser and Duncan made an interesting choice; essentially, putting the decision “in God’s hands,” as Duncan phrased it.

“I just thought, ‘Let’s just sell both of them,’” Purser said.

Both properties went up for sale, and the decision to put them on the market quickly made their decision for them. When the sign went up at Springhill on April 1, the interest from potential buyers was immediate and unexpected. The many inquiries forced Purser and Duncan to realize exactly how much they love their home in downtown Washington. Two days after the “For Sale” went up at Springhill, it came back down.

The decision made, selling the Ponderosa remains a difficult prospect. As a funeral director, Purser is well-versed in helping the aggrieved with tough decisions well after the funeral is over, often being asked to recommend realtors, antiques dealers and more by those unsure of how to handle inherited property. This time, however, it was personal.

“None of my experience in the past 30 years as a funeral director has helped prepare me for this,” Purser said.

The Ponderosa, with its ranch house, stables, fish pond, horse shelters, plenty of pastureland, and its memories of races and trail rides, is listed with Coldwell Banker Coastal Rivers Realty in Washington. Purser has high hopes that the right owners will come along.

“I’d really like for someone who’s into the equestrian life and has horses to take it and enjoy it as much as we did when we were all living there,” Purser said.

For more information, call Coldwell Banker Coastal Rivers Realty at 252-975-8010.