Well, it's done. I've cleaned out the storage room in the attic. It's all been sorted and either kept, sold, given away or thrown out. I found stuff from my mother, my father, and both sets of grandparents. My grandmother lived with us until she died and I found her clothes and personal items including a ring I believe was cut off of her finger at the end. I found lots of old photographs, funeral cards, greeting cards, fabric, sewing machines, hats and dresses. I am still amazed that my parents kept all these things. And then there was the stuff that I kept: diaries, letters, school notebooks, toys and mementos. And the stuff I kept from my own kids, artwork, school papers, baby clothes.
The yard sale was surprising. While putting stuff out, the kids had a chance to take what they want. All three of them made some surprising choices. The boys took my dad's things to remember him by which was nice. Anna kept some things from her grandmother and a set if hand-painted spice tins that Margaret painted as a Christmas gift to my mother in 1953. We had one couple show up Friday night while we were setting up and she was going through boxes pulling out things she thought I might like to keep. She really was a help. They bought a lot of stuff, but did not haggle. I don't even want to know what their house looks like!
At the yard sale people would ask and I would tell them it was "the last layer." It feels good. I know what I have, I know where it is and I can find it myself. This is the first time in eight years that we and our stuff have been under the same roof, clean, organized and stowed away. It's like a new beginning.
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