When my mom had emergency surgery in 2017 to repair a ruptured colon, I was hopeful that she’d recover easily enough, move back into her two-story house, and get on with her active retirement life. That wasn’t meant to be.
The long surgery brought about post-operative delirium and the end of her days of independent living. She went from rehab to staying at her home with me as her caregiver to a one-bedroom apartment in an assisted living facility. When she qualified for Medicaid the following year, her living situation was downsized to a studio apartment in another assisted living facility. When her Medicaid provider rescinded the contract with that facility this fall, we were forced to downsize again. She now has a bedroom and semi-private bath.
With each move, my husband and I have had to sort through her things to furnish her home with only those items that would fit in the smaller space. My mom loves holidays and had a plethora of holiday décor. She also loves to cook and had a well-stocked kitchen. When we sold her house five years ago, we packed up countless boxes of her household items and have been storing them in our basement since then.
With this latest move in September, we realized that it was time to let go of everything we’d been storing. Hundreds of items. We unboxed everything in our basement, added all the new items from the latest move to the piles, sorted and categorized, shot photos of every group, and then contacted an estate dealer to see what price we could get for the entire lot.
After getting the offer (about a third of what I’d anticipated), I thought about it overnight, and, with John’s encouragement, made the decision to post everything on my Facebook page to see if anyone was interested in any of the items. It turns out, a lot of people were.
For the next week, I corresponded with friends and family from all over the country. People stopped by our house to pick things up, I drove well over 100 miles delivering items, I shipped packages, and we made a couple runs to donate items to a local charity thrift shop.
What seemed like such a daunting task turned out to be a wonderful experience. It was gratifying to see that all my mom’s beloved belongings found new homes where they’d be appreciated and used once again. Marie Kondo would approve.
The recipients of the items included family, old friends, classmates and workmates, neighbors, a preschool and daycare, a priest friend, and even me (I kept a couple things for myself).
Probably the sweetest story is that of my long-lost cousin, who’d been adopted at birth, and has just come into our lives through one of those DNA-sharing sites. She and her daughter now own the majority of my mom’s Christmas décor. It was expensive shipping everything across the country, but they will treasure having this connection to their aunt and extended family.
In the end, I’m so glad that I chose to undertake this project, even though it took up the two weeks that I was home this fall between trips. John and I have our house squared away just in time for the holidays and more people than I’ll ever know have been blessed to have a part of my mom with them. It doesn’t get much better than that.