We have a new reader named Marion, which leads me to my
story.
I found a small blue blanket among my mother’s things, left
unfinished. It still had the paper pattern with it, the crochet
hook, and the yarn for finishing. At first I was going to throw it
out, or give it to Goodwill, but that made me sad. I needed someone
willing to finish this baby blanket my mom had started but was
never able to complete before she died.
We have a new reader named Marion, which leads me to my story.
I found a small blue blanket among my mother’s things, left unfinished. It still had the paper pattern with it, the crochet hook, and the yarn for finishing. At first I was going to throw it out, or give it to Goodwill, but that made me sad. I needed someone willing to finish this baby blanket my mom had started but was never able to complete before she died.
Then I met 95-year-old Marion Falcato Venezio – who still lives alone in her own house, walks, gardens and crochets. I took the blanket to her, and she began figuring out the pattern right away.
“It’s a little more recent than the pattern I use,” she said, but she quickly picked up the next stitch right where my mom had left off. “It gives me something to do,” she said, as she finished it. And it sure made me feel better.
Dismantling a life is no easy task. What do you do with a lifetime’s accumulation of possessions? It is so overwhelming. The advice of a friend really helped. She told me, “It’s like eating an elephant. You just have to take one bite at a time.” Here are a few great ideas my friend shared from her family’s experience of emptying an entire house:
“When it comes to the many vases from flowers folks sent over the years, you can take them to a florist. Wash them in the dishwasher and they look like new. The florist was very happy to get the vases, and I’m sure they made a lot of other people happy.”
As an avid gardener, my mom had collected a lot of pots, which I found can be returned to a local nursery to be recycled and filled with new plants. Other tips from my friend: she washed all the towels and took them to the animal shelter.
She put all of the food staples in the dining room and on the counter in the kitchen and asked neighbors to come in and get what they wanted. She took unopened non-perishables to St. Joseph’s Family Center.
She couldn’t bear to sell the furniture – she offered it to neighbors and then called “Hope,” the organization that works with disabled and challenged individuals. They will come and pick up whatever you put at curbside. She moved all of the furniture the neighbors didn’t want out onto the front lawn. She had just gotten it out there when a young man with kids in the car drove by and asked her if it was free. She said, “Sure.” He came right back with a pickup truck – she felt as if it was really a “gift from God” to that family – a nice dining room set and other good “stuff.”
She called a hauling company at the end. It takes time to do it “right,” but the satisfaction is worth it. It doesn’t get easier as one waits longer. It just feels like a bigger burden. Any big job like this is like eating an elephant, but as my friend says, “Keep chomping at that elephant.”
