Sundries and such

After a little more than a year in a nursing home with dementia, my 86-year-old mother-in-law Betty passed away this past February. Sadly, my husband, an only child, is now an orphan. My own family has reached out to him to let him know that they're his family now, but that can be a bit overwhelming for Philip -- I have 5 older brothers who are all married and sometimes our family get-togethers can get a bit overwhelming for him -- even after 10 years!

We had Betty's belongings in a storage unit but recently moved them into our garage so that we could save the $120 a month it was costing us. Being unemployed and with a lot of time on our hands we've been sorting through her furniture and belongings -- had an estate sale in our driveway for three weekends in a row -- Betty would be happy that the sale of her belongings helped us make our latest mortgage payment.

Going through the things that made up her life was sad for Philip -- much of it was from his life growing up as well. But there were some amusing surprises as well...

Before I share, let me put it into context. There is one major difference in the philosophies of my family and Philip's -- Philip's parents philosophy was, "Why do it yourself when you can pay someone to do it for you," while my family has always held, "Why pay someone to do it when you can do it yourself."

So for Betty that meant eating out instead of cooking, taking clothes to the tailor rather than sewing a button herself, getting the dry cleaner to pick up and deliver her clothes, etc. Up until she went to the nursing home she wore suits everyday!

With that knowledge, I just had to chuckle as I sorted through the boxes and counted up about 5 full sets of pots and pans, a huge collection of cookbooks and a beautiful old sewing machine, among other things! There were two sewing boxes full of needles and thread and buttons and a sundry of knitting items including yarn, needles, vintage measuring tapes and a decorate box full of bone crochet hooks!

I loved Betty -- she and I developed a relationship that was asclose as a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law can. She always introduced me as her daughter and as time went on and her dementia set it she would barely start a sentence or question and I could finish it or answer it without a hint of what was on her mind.

We miss her so much - her wry humor and her and bright smile. And I know she'd be smiling that I found these things, knowing I would tease her about them, but most importantly, that I will use them!