Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Taking in, getting rid, and saying goodbye

It's been a hectic time these last two weeks. As soon as I got back from my holiday I had to set to and clear space in my garage to store the last of the boxes of stuff from my late husband's house, until such time as the family can get together to go through it all. Also needing storage is the stuff waiting to be packed and dispatched to my eldest son in Sydney.

The buyers of the house were getting very impatient for a date for vacant possession - you have to wait for probate before the sale can be completed - and when we finally got that it was a mad scramble to settle the matter before they lost interest in buying. By last Saturday the garage was still full of furniture and boxes awaiting collection by No 2 son, but by Sunday that was dealt with, and on Monday we finally handed over the keys of the house. I paid a last visit on Sunday, and said my goodbyes to Michael yet again, almost a year after he left there himself. Stripped though the house was, it was still his place. Here are two pictures of him, aged 16 months and 83.



















I have taken advantage of all this house clearance, to get rid of some furniture of my own for which I no longer have a need. When the auctioneers came to collect my husband's unwanted furniture, I said a sad goodbye to this child's cot-bed, which I have sent to the auction house as well. It was bought for my mother in 1902 from Heal's in London - I had the receipt to say so - and I and my children have also slept in it. To my regret, I never got a grandchild here to use it though, and now they are all too big. I wept a little before letting it go. I kept my teddybear however. He is not quite so old as the cot, but almost as old as me.



5 comments:

Sheila Joynes' Musical Diary said...

Thak goodness clearing things out and "getting rid" doesn't work like the delete button on the computer. Everything is still there in your memory and in your heart, Judith, and nothing can change that.

Avus said...

I hate getting rid of things, Judith - all those old friends and good servants - apart from all the aggro of actually doing the job.
Relinquishing that cot must have been quite an emotional moment - what a shame it had to go.

Pete said...

Judith

Thank you for sharing this moment in your life. It is sad to have to say goodbye, but as Sheila says above, you do have your memories (and your Teddy)
Take care

Peter
XX

herhimnbryn said...

Thankyou for sharing J. A hard time for you , this last year.

Beryl Ament said...

I live between two extremes: a husband reluctant to let anything go and children, no longer at home, who are pragmatic in their culling. And although I am in between, I have seen so much misery lately—tacky Christmas decorations my sister-in-law took from Montana to New Mexico and an elderly friend weighed down with years of papers.

I regret throwing out a number of things, but that regret is minuscule compared to the knowledge that what I have kept is indeed important to me. And my childrem know that.