About a year ago, I wrote about a happy declutter: Frugal Son, back from a year working in France, unsure of the next step, got a job at a bilingual school in New Orleans. He discovered that he loves teaching. He also discovered that he loves New Orleans. The happy declutter: helping him furnish his tiny shared apartment with my--ahem--overstock.
But we had a sad event too. Mr FS's beloved father died, and our share of the neat and sentimental items overstuffed the house again. More than before. Little did we expect...
That, owing to the fact that Frugal Son was paying too much rent and wants to stay in New Orleans, we would be able to help him buy a house. Using part of our share of the house of Mr FS's parents. We wish they could see it.
Yesterday, we moved a lot of overstock to the new house, including many items belonging to his much-loved grandparents. A table that Oompa made. A tapestry that Nana made. I do think that memories inhere in objects and, for this reason, I am stubbornly materialistic.
Custom Search
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
I'm so sorry for your family's loss. I feel the same way about items. I have little chachkis from those I love that have passed that I will never get rid of, no matter how much I have to downsize. It's like having them and those memories with you despite the fact that they're gone from this earth.
What a great way for your son to start out--with familiar items!
My mother has moved into an adjoining apartment in our home and we have been going through the process of sorting through everything in the home I grew up in. Finally, I will have matched dishes for entertaining!
Hopefully your son feels that same way that you do about things. My dad did not and gave away several items of his parents that I would have loved to have had. Perhaps it's just as well, but it was painful at the time.
Touching, Frugal. I comment surrounded by things of my parents and grandparents, as well as my own purchases and some antiques from who knows who.
Each generation has to decide what to preserve and what to winnow.
Hope we hear more about the house! Congratulations!
My mother has just sold her home after my father's recent death and I feel that it is our responsibility to find loving homes for all of the "treasures". It is wonderful that your son will have some of your family's keepsakes in his new home.
@all--I have been away for a while...thanks for thewonderful comments.
@femmefrug--Proust has something to say about identity residing in objects...will find later and post.
@Terri--Matching dishes--what a concept. I still don't have them. Lucky to have your mother so close.
@Shelley--My mother dumps things with wild abandon--perhaps that's why I and my family hold on.
@Duchesse--So nice to hear about your surroundings. In your posts, you emphasized what you got rid of. More on the house in a few months...
@mmelb--I am la-bas as I write! Thanks for the comment--though I am afraid I gave my son mostly odds and ends to start...
Post a Comment