We held Mom and Dad's Living Estate Sale this weekend! Ollie, Jean and I arrived at the "old" house on Thursday morning at 8:00 and immediately started taking things out of the house and setting them up ion the garage and the driveway for the sale, pricing it and doing a LOT of reminiscing! We held the sale Friday and Saturday and literally sold everything that we kids didn't take! I am going over to Mom and Dad's house after while to take them a nice envelope-full of cash! That will be a treat!
Huge thanks to my precious sister-friend Kim Wagner who showed up Friday ready to work and stayed the whole day! I don't know what we'd have done without her!! God intended on us being friends from the day we were born...we were born at the old
St David's Hospital in Austin, two days apart...so we were nursery mates! Years later, we were in a class in high school in 1971 and became instant friends and have been friends ever since! Isn't life ironic?! Kim is one of the greatest blessings in my life!
We kept so, so much! I don't know where we're each going to put everything, but there was so much that we couldn't sell! A lot of the remaining furniture and odds and ends will go to the grandchildren, now that they are all in homes of their own. We also made sure that the great-grandchildren got something to cherish. We are such a sentimental bunch!
I had at least six meltdowns over the course of the sale! I know everyone eventually has to go through this, but the emotions are all still so raw having moved Mom and Dad to Austin and found out so shortly afterwards that Mom is sick. One of the worst things for me was walking into Mom's closet and smelling her perfume on everything she wore! Jean and I started out the door Friday morning, each with a handful of clothes, and I couldn't handle it. I turned around and put them all back and told Jean that we were not selling Mom's clothes! I don't care that she can't wear them any more, since she has lost so much weight, but I couldn't stand the thought of people I didn't know walking off with her clothes! I think I will get them to the ladies at Mom and Dad's Church in Marble Falls. The ladies there always were so complimentary of how well Mom dressed. Once, when the Church was holding a garage sale, Mom took some clothes that were too large for her and the women swarmed over them and didn't put them in the sale, but bought them for themselves!! Mom will be pleased for those women to have them! I also didn't sell Dad's pearl snap western shirts! No way I could sell those! I don't know quite yet what I will do with them!
It's bittersweet to have this task behind us. It felt so strange walking out the door of the house with it being totally empty and knowing that another step in our parents' life journey is behind them. The house and the property is on the market and we showed it to several couples who were interested in it. It would be great if one of those couples decided to buy it!
This morning Ollie and I unloaded the suburban and truck of all our treasures, and the treasures I brought to take to Mom and Dad, Whitney, Nicole and Danny. Glenda and Jean have their family's treasures to disperse! Yes, it's all just "stuff", but it is full of memories of precious times with Mom and Dad that we hold in our hearts forever!
I did make a decision this weekend...I will clean out my closets and purge them of items that are not of sentimental value and that I don't use often! We all have too much stuff, Lord knows I do, but it's hard to let it go! I am going to learn how!!!
“Where does stuff go when it dies,
does it go to stuff heaven?”
does it go to stuff heaven?”
~George Carlin~
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