My 86 year-old mom recently had a terrible fall in the driveway. She broke her nose, did quite a bit of skin damage/tearing, and wound up in the ER. The local hospital felt she needed more care than they could give her, so they took her by ambulance to a larger hospital in Dallas who had an emergency ENT doc. While she did recover from the fall, she felt that living on her own and caring for the house was getting to be too much for her, so she moved into a very nice "independent living" facility where she gets three delicious meals a day prepared by chefs, a cleaner/housekeeper, and a smaller space to have to maintain.
My task in all of this endeavor was to clear out the house. And I can't go a moment further without mentioning the invaluable help of my sister, Mary Ann in getting her moved and setting up and running an estate sale. In addition to helping with the estate sale, I was tasked with all the leftovers. I spent the better part of the summer sifting through...what can I call it? Ephemera? Treasures? Deciding what to send off to the Salvation Army, what to keep in storage, and what had outlived its usefulness and should now be retired to the bin. And I can tell you that it is hard, emotionally going through all this old stuff--knowing you don't have space for all of it. And picking and choosing, while I wouldn't exactly compare it to Sophie's Choice, it is difficult nonetheless.
I decided I needed a place to remember some of those objects, so here it is.... I'll start from the top and work my way down--I wish I could line up pictures better on here.
1) marble bust--weighs a ton! It was my mom's parents. Does it work with my traveling lifestyle? No. Does my decorating style work with marble busts? Not really. But I kept it in the storage unit--it was too hard for my mom to see it go. Maybe I'll settle down one day and have a place for it.2) my doll cradle. I loved playing dolls with this! And my mom made the pretty little cover. Gave it to my niece--maybe she'll have daughters one day.
3)Annie's "feely heart". A remembrance of my dear friend Annie, who died way too soon of a brain aneurysm. I will keep this forever.
4)paper weight--I made this in kindergarten. Can you believe it still has water? Thank you, Mrs. Freeman. Gone, but not forgotten.
5) shoes I wore in college. I thought they would be really crazy and one day I would say, "I can't believe I wore those!" But actually, I still think they are kind of cute. Just a bit too small. I think they went in the trunk.
5) hand print - also made in kindergarten. I had a really crafty teacher! Can you imagine--we got to make things instead of do test prep! Gone, but not forgotten.
6) loom pot holder - made in first grade. Hasn't everyone made one of these? Santa brought me the kit for Christmas--I loved sticking my hand in that big bag of circle thingys! Gone but not forgotten.
7) a whole bag of love notes from my first class. Were kids just sweeter then? Or was I? I must confess--I kept them--I don't get so many of them any more. I think we keep kids too busy for note writing these days!
8) all the cards and letters my mom and dad ever sent me. Kept. Rereading them makes my dad seem right there to me.
9) old family pictures....kept. My mom always thought she was too fat--I think she looks beautiful.
10)My brother sends me blue jay feathers when I am going through stressful times. He died 38 years ago. (No, I am not crazy--that is a story for another time). I got 3 this summer--one was lying on the kitchen floor. Kept.
So those are some of my priceless treasures!
I wonder what sorts of "treasure" other people keep?
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