We spent half of Friday and all of the weekend in Branson at my late grandmother’s home. Saturday was the auction and most of the family was in town for the sale. It was difficult to see people walk away with her things: her porcelain strawberry, her easy chair, her cookie jar. These people just cart it off like it’s a thing, some object, as if it had no significance. It is just a thing, isn’t it. It’s all just stuff, but it’s hard when it’s your granny’s things and you attach memories to those things. My goodness we moved things: boxes and boxes and those things.
Luckily, those of us left were able to take a few items to appease our need for sentimentality. I have her secretary, a very beautiful piece of furniture that we have already placed and filled with stuff. We put our Japanese tea set in the glass hutch and filled the drawers with school and art supplies. Grandma would have liked that fact that we are using the secretary.
I also have her oattie bowl. It’s a small bowl with a handle, a truly unique piece, that she used to serve me oatmeal in. Now I serve oatmeal in it to my daughter. And life moves on. The world moves on. And I think the sale helped all of us to do that too.
Luckily, those of us left were able to take a few items to appease our need for sentimentality. I have her secretary, a very beautiful piece of furniture that we have already placed and filled with stuff. We put our Japanese tea set in the glass hutch and filled the drawers with school and art supplies. Grandma would have liked that fact that we are using the secretary.
I also have her oattie bowl. It’s a small bowl with a handle, a truly unique piece, that she used to serve me oatmeal in. Now I serve oatmeal in it to my daughter. And life moves on. The world moves on. And I think the sale helped all of us to do that too.
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2 comments:
I can absolutely relate to this post, having had to arrange and witness the auction of all of my late mother's things, BEFORE she had even passed.
Watching people bid pennies for the things she collected and cherished over a life time, or had been given to her as gifts from other family members was one of the most difficult and heart wrenching things I have had to deal with in my life.
Very painful.
I remember when my beloved Grandfather Dale passed away. (The guy my oldest son is named for.)
I was living out west and my mother called me from his old apartment because every grandchild who never spent a day with him or called him on the phone or who even knew how the heart of that poor old man broke every Christmas or birthday that went past without them calling or seeing him was going through his things and laying dibs on the items.
Mom asked me if there was anything I wanted from Grandpap's place and I asked for a print of the Last Supper that hung over his chair when I was a kid. I would remember late nights watching MTV and he would sit there for hours watching with me even though he had no desire to watch Bon Jovi videos.
I still remember when Mom said to my Aunt I wanted the picture one of my cousins said "that's fine...it's not worth anything." It still stings to think about that even over a decade later.
Today that photo hangs in my living room and every day I see it and think of him. While moving on is good it's also good to keep the memories with something special like your oattie bowl.
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