By Emilie Williamson
When I think about the word “home,” I don’t think about a dot on a map, I think about the journey it took to get there.
For most of my adult life, home was wherever the Army sent me. I was stationed at places like Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Fort Huachuca in Arizona, Fort Polk in Louisiana and Fort Hood near Killeen. Every move meant starting over — new house, new people, new routines. It was exciting at times, but it was also exhausting. You get used to not getting too comfortable.
Then my husband’s military career took us on another leg of that journey. He retired from the Navy in 2015 while we were living in Virginia Beach, Virginia and we thought maybe — finally — things would slow down. We moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, so he could start his civilian career with BNSF Railway.
But even then, life wasn’t quite ready to settle. About nine months later, his job brought us to Fort Worth.
I remember unpacking boxes, trying to get the house in order, thinking, “OK, maybe this is it.” And then we got a call offering us a chance to go back to Tulsa. It would’ve been easy to go. We had roots there, family there. But something in us said to stay and just give Texas a chance.
That decision changed everything.
We started out in Keller, and in March 2018, we built our home in the Creekwood neighborhood in north Fort Worth near Saginaw. At the time, I don’t think we fully realized it, but that’s when things started to feel different. More permanent.
After all those years of moving, my husband and I made a promise to each other: Once our oldest started high school, we were done moving. Our kids deserved that stability. We wanted them to go to the same schools, have the same friends and the chance to really feel rooted somewhere.
That’s exactly what we found here.
What makes this neighborhood special isn’t just our house, but the people.
I serve as president of our neighborhood’s social committee, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever been part of. We put together events all year — Santa visits, Easter egg hunts, turkey trots, carnivals, pool parties in the summer. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it when you see everyone come together.
This neighborhood just shows up for each other.
If you post that you need something small — like a cup of milk because you ran out mid-recipe — you’ll have people offering to help almost immediately. It sounds simple, but it says everything about the kind of community this is.
After years of packing up and starting over, I finally feel like we’re not going anywhere.
We’ve built a life here. Our kids are growing up here. Our friends are here.
This isn’t just where we live anymore. This is home, and for good.
Emilie Williamson is a north Fort Worth resident, Army veteran and real estate professional who serves as president of the Women’s Council of Realtors Fort Worth Tarrant Network.
Creekwood
Total population: 2,459
Male: 49% | Female: 51%
Age
0-9: 16%
10-19: 11%
20-29: 21%
30-39: 10%
40-49: 8%
50-59: 24%
60-69: 5%
70-79: 5%
80 and older: 0%
Education
No degree: 0%
High school: 9%
Some college: 63%
Bachelor’s degree: 12%
Post-graduate: 16%
Race
White: 35% | Hispanic: 32% | Black: 0% | Asian: 13% | Two or more: 20%
Click on the link to view the schools’ Texas Education Agency ratings:
Source: Census Reporter
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