Treasures

Seven years ago my grandparents moved from a large house in South Carolina to the one bedroom apartment attached to my parents house here in Maryland. When she moved, Gramma down sized to the best of her ability, but she still brought more than could fit in her house here. Grandad asked us to go through the thirty or so boxes that were stored in the shop.

Here's what you have to know about Gramma. She was very sentimental. She saved every card that was sent to her. She sent A LOT of cards so she received a lot of cards in return. Gramma also loved to give gifts which means that she received a lot of gifts. Every gift she received was so special to her--which means she kept every knick knack, candle and collectible that was given to her.

My uncle got the boxes down from the loft for us to sort through. I ended up helping him so he didn't have to climb up and down the ladder. I may have encouraged him to just drop the boxes marked "photos" only to later find out that those boxes contained framed photos. We definitely did not handle those boxes in the delicate way that Gramma would have appreciated.

Mom, Janell, and I went through the boxes throwing away paper and setting aside things that were obviously for donation. Along the way, we did find sentimental things--like the corsages from the my wedding--which I took a picture of and then threw away.

Our children gathered things that they thought were pretty to take home. Anna has all of her treasures laid out on a bedside table in her room.

One of my Great Great Aunts had a hobby of blowing eggs and decorating them. The picture below is supposed to look like a lamp/lantern. We found quite a few eggs decorated by her and I kept the ones I wanted and the ones no one else wanted.

Then last week when my aunt and cousin were here, we went through the boxes again with them and whatever was left was donated. Gramma had several large collections of spoons, salt and pepper shakers, 2 different Christmas villages and a couple more. We laid out each collection and everyone could choose which pieces they wanted. This is the spoon collection.

In one box we found a bunch of desk supplies--crayons, paper, pens, pencils etc. I brought home a bunch of paper and a tupperware container of pens, pencils and such. Several days later I looked through it and in the bottom I found a business card of Grandad's when he owned the mower shop and this notebook that would have been used for marketing. That's one thing we quickly figured out--open up every box and drawer and anything else that can be opened because there is most likely something inside and sometimes it turns out to be an unexpected treasure or memory.

My van was full of boxes and when I unloaded them at Salvation Army I was sad. There was nothing that I wanted in those boxes, but it was another finality. Another moment when I couldn't believe that "someday" was today.