Five days of sorting a large estate.

In my last blog, I spoke about the first steps of getting my dearly departed mom's estate ready. Trash and the obviously valuable were the things that my siblings helped sort. Now I was left alone to sort through thousands of pieces of paper and objects. My goal: to sort the stuff to sell, and stuff to keep.

I stayed up one night sorting boxes. It was a fantastic experience. I made a box for each of my siblings, plus other boxes for things like correspondence, photos, business, high priority, and low priority. I sat in the living room surrounded by these boxes, and I went through the history of my family and my life. I was so glad to have this job. Many would be overwhelmed, but for some reason it is my nature to be able to have huge seemingly impossible jobs, and feel excited and stimulated. It's just a gift--others have equally valuable gifts.

I just could not stop sorting, seeing box after box of stuff emptied and put into places where they could be useful. Of course since this was my own history, I stopped and read stuff--but if I was doing someone else's sorting, it would take less time. But the process would be the same. Sort so the people can then sort it themselves. I don't throw away anything--I even put advertisement and seeming junk mail into a low priority category. (That is, unless someone wants me to throw away stuff and tells me specifically what to throw away.)

My siblings came back on Friday, and I was so thrilled to show them the results of my work. I even took a video of their reaction (I have got to find that!) At first my brother was disappointed--there was a bunch of trash out in the driveway--I had actually uncovered a whole dumpster load of more obvious trash. (He had seen the driveway be all clear and clean when he left). But walking through the door, his mouth dropped open and he was so happy to see that the whole place was ready for an estate sale, the place was clean and even good smelling. My sisters were excited and pleased as well!

And that night, after a nice dinner together--the first we had shared all together in about 25 years--I sat them down with their boxes. It was like Christmas--they looked through and found letters and cards from them and to them, special photos, report cards, child hood art, and more. I had left out the most special and precious things,and we all looked at them together. I felt so close to them, and they felt so thankful for my hard and caring work.

Then we tacked together cleaning out my mom's room, which my sister wanted to save til last. I let her be in charge, but offered gentle suggestions, and it all went well. A lot of tears were shed, and we grieved her passing as we had done throughout the whole time we had been working together. And we also celebrated that she was free from all this stuff, and the pain she had felt in her last days.

I feel so deeply fulfilled and joyful that I had these skills to offer to my siblings, and to my mom. She saved those things, hoping that they would be useful, and they were. Sadly, some were spoiled because of the water damage--but so many precious things were there--like my master tapes for my music tapes. Thanks, Mom, for being a great packrat! And thank you, dear reader, for letting me share this very meaningful time. Perhaps you know someone who might need help like this--I would be honored to offer this service to someone in need.