Sorting Out

The hardest part about the sorting out at Mom's condo is all the
decisions. It takes so long to go through everything. I have to decide
four things for each item: keep, throw away, give away or sell. Like the
letter opener that is a Samurai sword in miniature in a garish red and
formerly gold wooden scabbard. It was made in Japan. I suppose it is a
trinket from some tourist shop. It's not worth anything but it was my
grandmother's and has been around forever. It's been in "the desk" all
these years. I kept it after some agonizing over it. No problem deciding
about the fur coats. I don't like the fur of dead animals no matter how
luxurious. I would never wear any of the coats. Those I'll sell. They
will bring maybe $50 apiece, maybe not. I gave Mom's everyday dishes and
most of the kitchen utensils to Melissa, my granddaughter, who remembers
lots of holiday dinners with those plates. She's setting up housekeeping
in December when she graduates from college. All of the spinning and
weaving things go to my son for his new shop "Tromp 'N Treadle". The
quilt making things are more difficult. Some of Mom's projects are half
finished. There are boxes of scraps all arranged and cut into shapes for
a quilt. I have always wanted to try that. Should I keep them? I have no
idea what the project was or how to do it. The knitting stuff I kept as
well as the embroidery and crochet. The basket weaving things are
untouched in a box. I suppose I'll donate them to the white elephant
sale at St. Pats. My extra bedroom is bursting at the seams with all the
sewing notions and one magnificent Bernina sewing machine with matching
sewing table. There are pictures, pictures, pictures. Slides, 8 mm film,
negatives, old Polaroid's, aging brown pictures of ancestors, wrinkled
snapshots carried lovingly in wallets - you name it. I have all the
collection of three generations in boxes all over the place. I'll be
sorting those out for months - maybe years. I see some scrap booking and
photo scanning coming up this winter. I think I will have to retire. I
have so much to do and no time for working and other trivia like that
LOL !!!

Today is boxing up stuff to donate to Purple Heart. In the process I
will generate more sale items, keepers, throw-aways and
give-to-some-ones for another sorting out day. Always there are things
that I haul home only to decide I don't want them after all and I haul
them back or throw them out. I am honing my skills. The day will soon
come when I have to do all this over again at my own house. I am not
going to leave all this "stuff" for someone else to do. I want to see
the pleasure on the face of a loved one when I give them some treasure.

It's sometimes a pleasant chore and sometimes I cry. After all, it isn't
just my mother's life I am reviewing - it's my own as well.