Which shelf makes Mom-Mom’s Dentures shine?

This is not my house, but we had a lot of books and artifacts. At the end, it felt like the Library of Congress was hosting a garage sale.

Most of the people in my family are dead. 

More specifically, I grew up in a house with my grandfather, grandmother and father. They are all dead (hi Mom!). I know this sounds flippant - I assure you I am thoroughly sad about this. I spend a lot of time being sad about it. This website is in fact a tribute to that sadness. I just want you in the loop, if this is in fact a place where you want to be. We are closing in on the 10 year anniversary of my dad’s sudden passing, when among other things, I became the immediate and sole beneficiary of a lot of stuff.  And here we are.

In a matter of seconds, on a single day in February 2011, I inherited my grandparent’s home and 3 generations of life inside of it. I was also the heir to several abrupt decision points: What should I throw out?  What paperwork matters or may matter in the future? What is trash? What gets donated?  How do you donate a piano? Will someone please take this piano? It was a lot of work, it was painful. I had an immense amount of help from some very generous people. At times this process was life affirming, but at its core… traumatic.

Clearing out the household goods (clothes, books, furniture, kitchenware) was labor intensive, but there was this other category of stuff that was mesmerizing. The family mementos – photos, love letters, baseball trophies, shriners hats, my grandmother’s actual dentures. 

I love to keep things – objects that tell stories.  As I stood in my childhood home and my dad’s childhood home, filled with 50 years of things, it was abundantly clear that I am a direct descendant of multiple generations of unabashed sentimentalists.

It took us months, but we unscientifically packed up the items we chose to keep and sold the house. A decade later, I am going to revisit all of those boxes. I find myself with more questions than answers. Some are process based and some are personal – Do I need all of this?  Am I caring for these properly? Who are the people in these photos? I don’t know enough about my family.  Why is this dollar bill framed? Did this safari hat go on a safari? Why did we keep Mom Mom’s teeth? Do I call a medium to ask? 

Join me as I try to answer some of these questions.

Welcome to the long grieve.