Packing up a life . . .

A couple of weeks ago, my mother asked me to assemble some boxes for her.  My brother got them off Craigslist for free.  Someone had moved and the moving company gave them far too many boxes.  So they offered them up to anyone who wanted them.  Since we were moving my mother-in-law from her apartment to assisted living, my brother thought we could probably use them.  He was right.

Packing up the mother-in-law's clothes wasn't so bad.  Her clothes are in her new closet and dresser and her pictures are on the walls and scattered around her room.  We even hung some cute things in the bathroom so that where she now lives would look more like home for her.

But then there're those boxes for my Mom.

It's been almost two years since my Dad passed.  My Mom wasn't ready to part with his things until now.  So for the past week or so she's been going through his clothes, washing them, and packing them up for Goodwill.

Yesterday I stood there and looked at his things and it made me cry. He isn't here anymore.  He has no use for any of them.  But . . . it just makes me so sad to see them go.

Dad would've been practical.  "Get rid of them!"  In fact, he did say that while he was in the nursing home.

I used to like to go to estate sales, but I find it hard to do these days.  Somebody died.  We're all picking over what the deceased might have loved and valued.  It all seems kind of ghoulish. And yet ... if no one has use for these things, maybe someone else might love and value them, too.

What do you think?