Between2 - Cleaning up

Angie came the first afternoon Jeff was gone. Thank the lord for friends like her. She is probably the closest thing I have to a sister. She is my rock.

We organized the study so she could find her bed for the night. The rest of her three day stay is a bit of a blur. I know she helped me go through some things and we took a few things to the Salvation Army. She fed me and made sure I got a nap each day. I was sleeping lousy - too many nights waking up each hour to give mom her meds.

After three day Angie had to go home. I spent the first night alone in the house in about 12 years. It was weird. The cats are upset. Jewel won’t eat and Stanley goes in mom and dad’s bedroom and yeowels plaintively. He is looking for mom and dad. I have no way to tell them that mom is gone and dad will be back soon. I spray Feliway and try to coax them to bed.

Music is my savior. I put Pandora, a station on the internet, on dad’s computer in the middle of the house and crank it up.

I gave Terry my last check for taking care of mom and asked her if she could help me with going through mom’s boxes, baskets and drawers of papers. We spent several days at it. It was just as bad as I predicted. Mom had saved all the graduation, wedding and birth announcements from all her siblings, her sibling’s children, their children, all of us kids, the borrowed kids and the foster kids. On top of that she had our report cards, articles out of the paper we were in, diplomas, birth certificates, and awards. I could have made a pile for each and spent the rest of my life mailing packages. I chose to keep mine, Wade’s and Jeff’s. The rest got recycled.

We gathered up several hundred greeting cards that Sue, my boss, said she would take to the Sunshine Division for recycling. We had 176 cards that were new and we gave to the Salvation Army for selling. Among all of this were numerous listing clear back to 1966 of her weight and measurements and what she ate to get there. She had diet journal after diet journal, and list after list. She was obsessed with her weight. There were receipts for things I knew she no longer had. Instruction manuals for long disposed of appliances, and letter after letter from her many children and grandchildren.

When Terry left Sarah came to help. We went through the bathroom. We organized all the cough drops into one bag and threw out all the outdated over the counter medicine and ointments. We tossed makeup and lotions out by the bags full. I gave all the nail polish to Sarah’s sister next door. We laughed when we found a box of opened tampons in one drawer. How long has it been since mom went through the change? Forty years? My mother the packrat.