All I asked was that they look through any boxes with their names on them and make decisions. They did that pretty well, although Emily was beginning to dread looking at the labels. I also wanted decisions on other things too, and they gave their opinions.
We did have a lot of laughs, but there was sadness too. We have bins of stuff from both my parents and Mike's that meant a lot to them but mean nothing to us except for just being happy that they had happy lives and were productive. We have boxes and boxes of Mike's things that we're gradually letting go of - work emails and pieces of denim with test results and notes. We sort of set guidelines on what to keep and what to throw away by thinking about what the only two inheritors of this will be one day. What will Graysen and Katherine enjoy seeing and reading about their great-grandparents lives and families?
I found the box that I had been looking for - MY mementos. Our high school things, wedding, young before-children lives. I wrote Mike a letter every day of my life between spring of 1964 and spring of 1967 except when he was home for the summer or breaks. He kept up pretty well himself, and so now we have a huge box of letters and cards that I will one day read again. I can't do it yet. Emily found a black-and-white picture of Mike in a madras shirt - the same one she wears sometimes now - 55 years old. We found baby shoes, Barbies, years of my journals, annuals from Andalusia, Troy, Auburn, R.E.Lee, Upson-Lee, commencement programs from Auburn, Georgia State, UNC, and South Alabama. Three sets of china, 12 boxes of Christmas and fall decorations, fabric, yarn, quilt batting, old golf clubs. I wonder why we saved Life magazines - a LOT of them.
My car got filled up with donations, and Emily's got filled up with bins for her to take home and look through. I saw her holding up little cutoff jeans and laughing about them to Elise. I wonder if I can throw Mother's Day cards away, especially the ones made from crumbling construction paper with their pictures on them. She took her letter to the tooth fairy with explicit instructions. I hope her girls will love it. Elise had made a baby book for Raggedy Ann with a lock of her hair in an envelope (red yarn). We did laugh a lot, and that was so precious to me.
But one point, we called it a victory for the garage and left it.
I don't have a before picture, but I can assure you it looked much better than this when we started.
I need to get rid of the freezer, a big roll-top desk, garage shelving, and a coffee table. Probably that rug in the foreground.
It looks pretty narrow, but maybe with a few more hours' work, I can park my car in there. We filled up the recycle bin and garbage can, so more will have to wait until after next Tuesday.
I feel good about it though. It's some progress, and we had a good time.
Katherine had her first day of Rooster Valley, and Emily said she cried. :( I know she will like it though. I'll get the pictures of this morning later. She was thrilled to be going but kind of thought her mom was going to stay. When I walked Graysen in, I had to release her onto the playground with K through 5 kids all screaming and playing. She was a little hesitant at first, but she saw someone she knew, and waved bye-bye, Mimi, and ran off. They all get delivered to the playground in the mornings between 8:45 and 9:00 and find their teachers at 9 and get taken inside. I'm not sure what's going to happen when it's pouring rain four days out of five and snowing too, but they know what to do. Three days a week, I (or Em on Monday) have to drop her off and get to Rooster Valley by 9:00. It's usually about a 10 minute drive, so I think it will work.
No comments:
Post a Comment