I just spent about an hour and a half going through minutiae of my mother's. I'd wanted to clean out the room, because we want to use it for our guests this summer. I knew my mother would have a lot of stuff squirreled away, so it might take a while.
After an hour and a half, I'd cleared -most- of what was on her table top. I took away from this two lessons:
First, if you need ballpoint pens with the names of New York funeral parlors, or hairdressers, or long-defunct banks, I'm your man. Ditto for half-used check registers, untouched notepads, and magnifying glasses. Also first or second generation calculators, a box camera, and some stainless-steel carving knives that aren't, quite.
Second, I should start pitching things myself.
3 comments:
I had this experience two summers ago. Funny how similar our mothers' bits and pieces were. My mother also had an extraordinary number of dictionaries and pencils.
There is something so tenderly heartbreaking about sorting through the minutiae of a parent's life - after nearly 50 years, I thought I knew her. Yet, I felt her vulnerable humanity so intensely as I handled the little things she handled each day, or kept for a "rainy day".
Forgot to say - I came to the same conclusion that you did - it is time to start whittling away at the assorted junk I've stockpiled myself!
Which leads to the feeling "But..but...that's my stuff!!!
I like your tagname.
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