Wednesday, August 25, 2010

thinking outside the box (and packing everything inside)

First off, check out the You're Gonna Love Me for This giveaway. Seriously, you'll love me.


Whew, I'm back home. I flew with my brother and sister-in-law to the Black Hills on Friday and on Saturday my sister-in-law and I drove six hours to pick up things at her mom's place and then another four hours to my mom's condo. After more than 10 hours in the car, we stayed up chatting another three hours.

The moving gods had to be perfectly aligned for things to fall into place and somehow it worked. It may not have been pretty at times but it's finished.

My mother has lots of things dating back to my grandmother's childhood and it was nice to see items that I hadn't seen before. I found diplomas from the 1920s and a few certificates of honor and merit for perfect attendance and no tardiness during the 1914 school year. There's a lovely spoon with books on it from my hometown library dated 1909 and many other things that warmed my heart. Another treat was seeing my grandmother's travel journal of her honeymoon...talk of men with chin whiskers and gypsies. I can't wait to read more of it.

My mom also looked better than she's looked in months. Her memory is failing and we often have conversations that are repeated moments later but we had a nice time and I was able to take her out shopping for a few hours yesterday.

She's still--at times--confused about where she's living but knew we were packing up her condo and putting her boxes in storage. When I picked her up at the nursing home yesterday for our outing she apologized that we had to pack up her home and she couldn't help. Then she quickly added that she hoped I saved boxes for her because she's planning on moving soon and will need them. I didn't even ask where she thinks she's moving. That's a conversation to be repeated another day.

Now I'm off to catch up on what you've been doing...

6 comments:

  1. mmm...my mom has an old cedar chest that she has had forever and it has always held treasures from the past, things that I used to love to look at as a chid. The day will come soon unfortunately when I will be packing up her stuff too....bittersweet, indeed.

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  2. Oh, friend. This makes my heart hurt for you. Your momma knows that she is moving, one day, in the future, to her real Home. And she won't need those boxes...she'll have them in her perfectly restored memory, There. :)
    And you, you are so strong to be able to do this for your momma.

    Also. QUIT advertising your giveaway. I wanna win.

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  3. Gypsies...that would get me hooked! :) I know it's probably hard for your and your family, and your mom, so I'll be thinking of you all.

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  4. What beautiful treasures for you to get to see...I love things like that.

    I know it must such a struggle to watch the changes in your mom, but I am glad she was doing a little better

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  5. What precious memories you're boxing up! What a heartache to see her going thru this. I'm glad she's doing better right now tho.

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  6. Oh girl, that is so sweet and sad at the same time. I'm so glad your mother is doing as well as she is but it's got to be hard.

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