Packing Up The Past

My mom made the major decision to sell the house she and my dad built 14 years ago and move to a house that’s a little smaller, on one level, where a homeowners’ association will take care of the grass mowing, garbage, snow removal, and she’ll have neighbors close by.

The children and I spent a week in October at her house packing up what we could, helping her take things to Goodwill that she no longer needed or wanted, and making some last joyful memories in this house where we’ve known so much love and laughter.

Time with Cousin C is always time well-spent.

My cousins’ dad died (my ex-uncle, so-to-speak) while we were visiting, and the children and Mom and I drove to Belmond for the funeral and to have some time with family when several folks would be gathered together.

We drove by the apartment complex where my grandma lived until she passed away 6 weeks after Buster was born.

Monkey has a few memories of visiting Grandma Frosty here, and I’ll always cherish our last visit:

So many amazing memories in Mom’s old house:

The picture above is important to me because that’s where we gave Dad his last shower. My cousin and his wife were over for a visit after they had been to church, and they helped us wheel Dad down the hallway on an office chair. (I was 4 days away from giving birth at this point.) We got Dad in the shower on the little seat, and got him all soaped up, clean and safe.

This was one of my cousins who was a Trump supporter, and I hold on to that memory of how loving and supportive he was on that day with Dad a decade ago to remind me that we can have connections despite having violently different views on many things.

It was a good week of organizing, remembering, packing, and planning.