TRASH OR TREASURE

The past few weeks have been hard for my siblings and myself as we recently lost our precious Mother. Last weekend, we started going through Mom's house to see what to do with all of her treasures.

It has been an adventure to say the least. We have had laughter, cried and been completely surprised at some of the things that our Mom had collected through the years. My parents both loved to go the "auctions" or sales. We are sure a lot of the collectible dishes and old books came from their great buys, but we know that some of them were also from our grandmothers and older aunts. We do remember some things that belonged to family members, but other pieces are just dishes. I know they all must have had a special meaning to Mom.

Mom also kept every card that special people sent to her. Some of them are treasures, but others we have no knowledge of and they are just cards to us. To find a letter that was written by a long gone realtive has a special meaning though, and I am glad that she did keep such things. It will be an adventure going through each one. It will also take time but it will be a time spent with something that was close to Mom.

Mom grew up in hard times and lived through the depression, war rationing and out of necessity, she had to be a very frugal person. She used and re-used and saved. She saved a lot of things that have gone past their time of usefulness. Some of them are Antiques. Some of them, we just laugh and say "Why did Mom have 3 toasters?" They don't all work but she thought someone could fix them. Today in our throw away world, it costs more to fix a toaster than buy a new one.

I had a good laugh and was excited when I found a white brocade dress that I made while I was still in High School. I know the size it was and today that same size is completely different. I could not believe that I was once that small as my (I'm on medicare) body is old and way out of shape today. I saved the dress to show my daughters and granddaughters.

I hope that I have learned a lesson this week. I need to start distributing things that I don't need to those who do. I have too much junk. Most of has been given to me and has a special meaning. I think about the person everytime I use things they have given me and it makes my heart glad.

Maybe I am too much like my Mother and someday my children will laugh, cry and get totally frustrated when they start to clean out my treasures. That will be okay, it is part of the healing process over the loss. Today, I thank my Mom for all of the wonderful memories she has provided for us this week. I would like to be sharing them with her.