OMG.......I could certainly tell that my mother had lived through the Great Depression!!!! I do not believe she ever threw ANYTHING away..........I have found cancelled checks, paid bills, insurance statements, etc., etc., etc. in Wally World plastic bags under her bed, in the closet, in boxes, etc in this spare bedroom and these go way back for years and years!!!!!
Then......my sister and I opened the cedar chest which we were not allowed to open over the years......and there was my mother's wedding dress, my sister's wedding dress, my first blanket that my grandmother had hand stitched for me, a cap that my great, great, great grandmother had worn during her adult life, my parent's wedding cake plastic people for the top layer.....and the list inside that chest goes on and on. In other boxes and bags we found programs that we had sang, played, performed in through our high school careers. We found OLD newspapers......one dating back to the middle 1800's that was the paper in STL......BEFORE the St Louis Globe-Democrat and the St Louis Post-Dispatch!! Newpapers from WWII detailing how Hitler was about to be captured and eliminated....etc., etc. There were OLD records with only one side having grooves in them.......very old sheet music. OLD wooden spools of thread, materials that were never sewn, scraps from those that were made into clothing........AND the lists go on and on and on and on and on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a Spare Bedroom Museum!
She never threw anything away! This little room described above is soooooo small that only a chest and a single bed will fit in there........AND all of the above, plus many, many items not mentioned above. REMEMBER......this is only ONE room of the house......THANK GOD, it is a small two bedroom house!!!!!
Sooooo, I am exhausted from this exercise today. The living room is full of LARGE leaf bags full of STUFF......things that we do not have room for, nor do we have any need for these items. Will we keep some of these physical memories???? Oh yes........but not many......after all, we never knew they existed, we didn't need them throughout our lives, and so why would we need them now???? (Refer back to my posts last fall on "STUFF"!!!!!)
And tomorrow???? Well, I have an appt in Jefferson City in the morning....and then back we go into the "museum" to finish that tiny room and begin on the rest of the house. All of this "time traveling" is tiring....believe me!! Everything must be looked at, discussed, and enjoyed....for the moment!
Are you ready to have your Life looked at.....after you are gone???? Have you saved all of these same types of items for .....who??? Yourself??? Your family??? Will they enjoy them and keep them....under their beds or elsewhere.......or will they find themselves doing as we have done today? Enjoying the moments that she left us in these chests and bags and boxes....and then moving on as we clean the house.....keeping these memories inside us to refer to and to remember our mother as someone who had such warm values that these items of the many decades and generations of her family needed to be preserved....for her memories.
Have I mentioned the thousands of pictures that she has in other places in the house?? Those have to be sorted through......and decisions made about their future, also. I also have found today all of the letters and cards I sent to my parents when I was in SE Asia for 13 months during 1969-70. And HEY.....guess what!!!!
My writing and punctuation marks and extended spellings of adjectives and adverbs were just the same then as they are now in these blog posts!!!! I had NO IDEA.....no idea that I wrote like 30-40 years ago!!! WOW!!! (yep...the same many exclamations marks were used then when I got excited about saying something). Guess I haven't changed.......HAHA!! What a statement!
Today.......a trip back through the Life and keepsakes of my mother.....seeing the materialistic things that meant sooooo much to her and her Life......the memories that she cherished throughout her Life. What a Lady!!!! What a wonderful, warm, caring, and loving Mother who dedicated her long Life to her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren! How very lucky we were, and will continue to be, thanks to her!
Life is Great!!!!.....and I hope it is for all of you, also
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