Reminising......

My wife and I spent the entire day down to my mom's house sorting things, finding old important items, throwing things and just making head way through a house full of things from the three who lived there. My dad has been gone eight years now, mom passed away a year ago May and my brother who lived there also has been gone since August.
We had two friends helping us and that did make it easier. Nancy likes cloth and sewing things so we filled Bernie's, her husband, truck. They helped to take away some of the lostness you feel when you have to take their things away and empty a house. Looking at old hippie photos of me, finding mom's high school diploma among the trash, laughing at the different points of view about keeping it or throwing it away, and sharing our grief. Nancy and Bernie are good friends. They will never know how much we were blessed by their being there.
The lone tulip picture represents the sadness we felt when we arrived to the house. I had planted tulips and daffodils in different falls when I visited mom and dad and they were all up and blooming. No one is there to appreciate them but the seasons continue. If you knew my mom, she would be scolding me saying that it wasn't necessary to put those bulbs in and then the next spring she would be calling bragging about how great her tulips looked. I would like to lift a couple of the varieties and pot them before I sell the house. The sticks need to be picked up right now and the yard mowed, but I think I can pull it off to pot them and let them grow in the pots all summer. This fall I will put them back in the ground up here. It is tough to see the roses needing to be pruned and leaves to be raked out of the flowers and care to the property has to be done. I hope the future owners will appreciate some of the joy that has been left there for them to enjoy each spring.