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My mother, almost 98, died last summer, and I've been coordinating the sale of the house, the disposal of her personal property, etc. This is a roomy old house with several outbuildings, occupied by the family since the 1920s --- full of trash and even treasures. The house has been sold; we close in two weeks. We had the estate sale last weekend and the estate sales agent did a wonderful job. They sold practically everything that was worth selling, and oversaw the donation of the rest to a tax deductible charity. (If anyone wants to ask about working with an estate sales company, I'll be happy to share my experience.)


But there was so much here, the accumulation of so many people, so many years, that there was a lot of stuff that wasn't even put out for sale --- most of it for the dumpster --- jammed up under the eaves, into storage sheds, into the rafters of the garage. So ... it's two weeks since the sale, and I'm still here, sleeping on an unsold couch, making do in the kitchen with one saucepan, one plate, one cup, one glass... trying to dispose of the remains of the estate. I'm managing pretty well, but I lost it today. A couple of good ol' boys are out here hauling the junk out of the attic to the dumpster and at some point the penny dropped and they realized that I was still living here. They were so shocked, so concerned about me! So anxious to assure me that they would work just as hard and fast as they could so that I could get out of here....well, I laughed and thanked them, and then I went and hid in the bathroom (one towel, one washcloth, etc.) and cried and cried.

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Awww...Realtime, that's heartbreaking. I'm so sorry for your loss. I am glad that the process has been going so well. People grieve at their own pace, so, your feelings are understandable. I can relate to staying in the house with bare essentials til the finale minute and it can be depressing.

Do you have plans on where you're going? That can be scary, but, also exciting. Transitions are hard sometimes, but, they offer new opportunities, too. Besides the movers, do you have someone to help you with your arrangements?
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Aww, sometimes a good cry helps. You have been through a very emotional event with selling personal items and family home. I tend to think an imprint of the energies of the people who owned items or lived in a space remains for a while. It sounds like you did a great job and handled it with dignity and respect for the ones who are gone. I hope you find some solace in that, but I'm sure it was not easy. Take care of yourself in the days ahead, and here's hoping that house will take good care of its new residents.
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Your post reminds me a song that I really love called The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert. It's about memories of our childhood home. Warning, I cry every time I hear it.
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Do I have anyone to help me? Sunnygirl, I have you and GingerMay and the rest of the crowd. (Thank you for the song.)
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Been there, done that, got that tear-soaked T-shirt.

We went through the same thing just over a month ago with my in-laws' house. It was harder than I thought it would be - and so very painful to see much of what had remained of their life on this earth reduced to the contents of a dumpster. And even more painful to know that no one in the rest of the family wanted any of the photographs and memorabilia they had accumulated over the years.

Hubby and I rented a U-Haul truck and took as many of those special things as we could stuff into it. And most of the 300-mile drive home, I cried.
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Oh, my Lord! I just crawled into a section of the attic that I thought had been reviewed and emptied during the estate sale process, and it's still full of stuff!
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Yikes, realtime! Someday you’ll look back on the attic blunder and laugh. (Maybe you are laughing already?)
Big hugs.

The post-mortem is a unique journey. And for most, it lasts longer than the flagging spirit would like. Hang in there.
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Going through the family "heirlooms" is hard - one of the reasons I made the decision to sell the home farm was so that I didn't have to deal with things after mom died. Lots of stuff got tossed on the brush pile and burned that last summer - if the fire is big enough even encyclopedias are completely consumed.
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