April 12, 2015

One Donation, Two donations, Three....



She read a lot, and she loved Christmas.  All her caring friends knew about these wonderful habits of hers.  They gave her books, and they gave her a little something every year for Christmas.

She had no children, and her husband was long gone.  When she was in her 90’s, she had to be placed in an assisted living home by a nephew.  They donated all her things to the local Discovery shop.



She cared for the people who gave her the books.  Inside many of them, I found notes in her tiny cursive hand: from the Parsons.  To Glenda from the Andrews, Christmas 1978.  From Charles 2013.  Only a few of the books had grown mold or dust, and I was charmed by all but the broken spines in her ten giant boxes of books.



Across the room from me and the masses of books, was one of my favorite sorters.  She was standing in front of the Christmas ornaments going through one container at a time.  There were ten boxes packed to the top.  Most of these too had notes with them.  The sorter saved the notes, and I was amazed by the variety: From Peter’s Construction, From G Shell Design…but the price was still on it.  Perhaps she bought this one.  Another pink Post-it told me that the Crystal Tree, Night Lites and Crystal Reindeer were all purchased in 91.  All these, and many were tiny things, were dated.  Some were bought or given in the 1960’s, and others were far newer.



She sewed too.  And there were dolls.  Did I mention that the furniture was to arrive today?  We are very grateful to the folks that remember the American Cancer Society with their donations.  Right now we have two part time, paid staff, and everything else is run by volunteers.  All our profits go to cancer research. 

Thank you for remembering us.




  • Himself:  Ran the ComboFix a second time out of Safe Mode, and it worked.  The computer started right up this morning.  Off to Costco shortly for more protiens and TP….how romantic is that.  Dinner tonight with Dr. Jim, Business Meeting, Meeting, and home.
  • Herself:  Glad I have a computer again, eating more things than I should, life is good.  Picked up my big garnet ring from the jewelers, that G got at an estate sale, where the solder in the back came apart.  They cleaned it too.  Very good day yesterday.  Follow G around today.  Stop by the store and look at those patterns as they are in my size.
  • Reading:  Nothing….wow.
  • Balance:  Spending a few moments meditating and a few more doing my PT.


  • 8 comments:

    1. I purchased some nice mediation CDs and almost fell asleep listening to them. Good stuff. What a story is awaiting us in those boxes of donations.

      ReplyDelete
    2. the story of a life all packaged up in donated boxes.

      ReplyDelete
    3. I worry a lot about accumulating things for my children to have to sort through. We are sorting and giving things away faster than we are acquiring them. Much of what we have is only interesting to us and maybe our kids, although our property would be in demand.
      Sounds pretty pragmatic, but I do appreciate what you do! And we give a lot of stuff away to the Goodwill and other places.

      ReplyDelete
    4. I loved this post. Pure history in those artifacts from a life well lived. Sad too.

      ReplyDelete
    5. My Mom labeled everything too. She was in love with post-its. Those notes are like a diary.

      ReplyDelete
    6. If I were Glenda I'd be happy for someone like you Mage to sort out my treasures.

      ReplyDelete
    7. Thrift shops provide accessible anthropology. Lovely post.

      ReplyDelete

    postcards

    Celebration of Life