What Will Our Kids Chuckle About?

I spent last week in Detroit helping my brothers and their spouses move my ninety-six year old uncle out of the house he has lived in for the last sixty plus years.  Uncle Don is a World War II Vet who never married.  Aside from my mom, who is in a nursing home and a sister who lives in Maryland, we are his only family.  Growing up it was like having a second dad.  He has done so much for me over the years it was easy to say “yes” when it was time to circle the wagons.  We have been after him for years to move out of the “old neighborhood” in the city. His block is still pretty stable and he has great neighbors but the surrounding streets are filled with abandoned and burned out homes.  

Uncle Don did make it to our 50 Anniversary celebration a few weeks back but left with a broken arm after a fall.  Independent soul that he is, he went back house but before too many days ended up calling 911.  Now he is in a rehabilitation facility.  Along the way his doctor told him no more independent living.  I guess we are grateful he finally listened to someone.  We moved his basic furniture into a one bedroom apartment in the same senior living community our mom lived in for almost fifteen years.  The good news is he has a safe place to move into once he is released from the hospital.  The bad news is we still have a house full of stuff to sort through before we can think about having an estate sale and then putting the house on the market. 

We have been down this road before when mom and dad closed out their home sixteen years ago.  Not an easy task.  Folks who survived the great depression tend to save things not knowing when they might need them.  We filled two dumpsters with “stuff” my dad in particular felt he might “need” someday.  That fact, coupled with the reality that almost everything you picked up has a memory attached to it makes it a real labor of love.  Thank goodness we can listen to “sixties music” and laugh as we work.

There are some lessons to be learned here: Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and when it is offered accept it.  Secondly, think before you put something away thinking you might need it in the future.  It might just be the stuff your kids chuckle about before tossing it in the dumpster.