TheBanyanTree: long week

[paul]

(first off, while not related by blood to these folks, I'm sort of part of the
family anyway.  They like me, for some reason.)
(second, I'm been pecking at this for a few days now.... it's just not
working.  But I'm tired of pecking.... it's time to the hit Send or Delete
button.)

(third, I wrote this almost three weeks ago.)
--------------------


The old man passed early Monday morning, January 5th.  Might as well call it
12:38 Sunday night.  He was in no pain as the Lou Gehrig's shut his body down.
He was alert and communicating via blinking until just a couple of minutes
before his last breath and didn't seem to be panicked or scared.  He knew what
was happening.  He knew he had folks that loved him a lot with him.  So.

Just as he exhaled his last breath, the whole front of the house shook,
especially the metal awning over the living room window.  Like thunder.  Lena
came and got him?  Who knows, we just know something happened and it wasn't an
earthquake or a sonic boom on a clear night.  The hospice folks had two great
nurses there and they matter of fact said stuff like this happens once in a
while.  Like Brad said at the time, "What a way to go!".

Rest in peace Aubrey.


Visitation was Tuesday evening.  The funeral was Wednesday afternoon.  Y'know,
it wasn't a sad funeral.  Aubrey would have been 91 come mid-February and he
had a good full life.  The preacher gave a really nice eulogy.

So it has all sorta been a good week.  Lot's of folks at the house visiting
and talking and telling stories.....  I should have had a tape recorder or
three running the whole time.   Sure, some folks crying, some folks suddenly
having tears running outta their heads...  you know how it goes...  but all in
all, not bad.


The three kids seem to be dealing with it.  But they are having a real hard
time disassembling what 67 years of marriage accumulated.  Can you blame them?

So while the kids mostly supervised, Brad, he's R's son, and I dug in.  Brad
started at the back of the house... got into all the old photos and stuff like
quilts and on and on, a treasure trove of history.  He found a box of
postcards postmarked from 1906 through about 1920.  Many of the cards are love
notes between Lena's parents:  Brad's great-grandparents.  It was really cool
to see this stuff.  Brad's going to frame the cards in glass so you can "turn
the picture over and read the back".

I hit the kitchen.  Just by tossing stuff like margarine tubs and 15 year old
jars of preserves, half of the cupboards are empty.  It's a big kitchen.  Oh,
and I found some gold:  Lena's cookbooks.  And her pie recipes.  And her prune
cake recipe.  Nobody wanted the books.  Fools!

R wanted his mom's cook pots (has for years, really).  No one wanted "that old
junk".  They bought in 1968 for about $800 /with/ the extras.  The stuff is by
a company called "Saladmaster" (still in business) and I'll tell you what,
it's all 18/8 stainless with solid bakelite handles.  This stuff makes my few
pieces of Revereware look like the "good" Mirro stuff you can buy at Wal-Mart.
The frying pans weigh what the same size pan weighs in cast iron.  I spent
most of the Sunday just past scrubbing pots with Comet and chemicals like "The
Works" bathroom cleaner and "Ez-Off" oven cleaner.  Other than the patina of
scratches acquired though =35= years and countless meals, the stuff now shines
like new.  R is amazed.  Needless to say, much of the existing cookware here
will be history.    <cough>   Don't mess with my Corningware.  :)

There has been no arguing about who gets what.  In fact, it has been more like
"here, take this!".  It's actually funny.  One person has grandpa's gun case.
Another has mother's butter churn.  Grandmother's treadle powered sewing
machine has found a new home.  So have grandmother's "corn pattern stoneware
dishes".  Furniture has been claimed.  What is left in a couple of months or
so when the house goes onto the market, is going to the hospice folks.  They
collect stuff for a big garage sale and the money helps their funding.


And that metal awning over the front window?  I tried to shake it and I
thumped on it pretty good last weekend.  Nah, it doesn't thump or move or
rattle, it's like hitting your fist on the sidewalk.  So it's not like a bird
flew into the thing at midnight.

While we were driving home last week, I said the house doesn't feel like a
home anymore -- it's just a building containing stuff, wasn't like that after
your mom died, it always sorta felt like she was there.  R agreed.   He had
been thinking the same thing.

So, we don't know.  But we think Lena came for Buster.  And now they are both
gone.  To where?

Dunno.

I hope to catch up with them someday... oh, about 50 years from now....



paul
_____________________________________
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