things get left behind
it happens that important pasts
wind up at yard sales
wind up at yard sales
like a beautiful photo album
brothers and sisters
children and cars of the time
times change
that just maybe these things
that are so important
have to remain behind
i remain this way
quiet
apologetic
I was reminded of a time I was asked to clear out an old house for a contractor who planned to remodel it. I was astonished in walking in. A 90 year old woman who lived there had died. Family had all come to take whatever they wished. They took very little. Every room was full of accumulations gathered by this woman in her life. Even family photos were not claimed, as though they meant nothing. I was so moved that I asked the contractor to allow me to live in the house for two weeks while emptying it. I still have a huge number of the memorabilia this woman left behind. And it remains sad to me that no one in her family cared to have any of these things.
ReplyDeletei love that you asked to live in that house
ReplyDeleteto keep alive those things that meant so much
to someone you never knew. ~robert
Ten years later, I still have so many of her things. She was a hoarder. I have Mason jars she filled with different things. Bobby pins. Slivers of soap she saved to grate into laundry soap later. All her husband's barber shop instruments and after shaves....it went on and on. In my kitchen, I cook with numerous utensils she left behind. I chop wood with her husband's axe. I found it in the garage with his initials on it. Her name was Ethyl. His name was Powell. I slept on their bed until I had the place emptied out. It was a pretty moving experience at the time. Still is.
ReplyDeletewonderful. I enjoy the sense of balance here, yard sale as photo album has much truth to it. I've often handled the possessions of now passed relatives, wondering what it was about this particular item or that that made it important enough to pass on.
ReplyDeletekeep them Dan. remember a man you never knew when you pick up the ax. don't forget when you pick up a spatula that it was Ethyl's. thank you for telling your story. it eases mine greatly.
ReplyDeleteBrent - the point is you have kept them, which is big, very big,
and that the story will continue. thank you.
It's interesting how we have around us things that define us....are practically a part of us. Sometimes I want to step into an empty closet and close the door and ask myself, "Who am I now?"
ReplyDeleteand here now with my stuff
ReplyDeletenot here there is a cleansing of sorts.
it feels good and bad.