For those of you who may not have gone back and gotten caught up on the blog, let me catch you up on the situation with my Nana. In February it become evident that she could no longer live on her own with her dementia progressing. She unwillingly moved into an assisted living. She now loves it, but still doesn't really admit it to us, but does to others. Anyway, she left behind a large home FULL of items each containing memories for all of us. There was just too much for us to take between us, so we had an estate sale. My mom, her aunt, and sister all worked for about three weeks around the clock to prepare and they did a great job! Nana made enough money to pay her rent for a few months, which takes a lot of stress off of my mom. Just an example of how much STUFF was in this house, I'll show my two favorite rooms of "stuff" to sell (these were all taken on my phone, so not the best quality)...
The living room was FULL of china and cut glassware (if I still had a basement, this ALL would have gone home with me)
This was the Christmas room (it became very clear in a matter of minutes where my extensive love of Christmas decorations came from! Ha!)
Nana did always tell me I could have a few things and one of those was her large collection of Pfaltzgraff Heritage dishes. I LOVE them and I think they look FABULOUS in my cabinet!
I did manage to take a few other things. The two that have several memories to me were these two small things:
This turkey held cranberry sauce every single Thanksgiving of my life. How could I have Thanksgiving without him???
This spoon hung in her kitchen as long as I can remember. It now hangs on the side of my refrigerator where I see it every time I cook. LOVE IT!
I also have a few things that she made when she was in her pottery phase in the early 1980s. She made a gorgeous stone/stained glass church to display at Christmas, an egg plate, and a jack o lantern that I always loved as a Child. The most coveted thing I have from her house is this special Christmas decoration that I had to fight to save when she wanted to get rid of it when I was high school. She sat on Nana's Christmas tree for about 40 years! Love her!!! She made me want to put my tree up now! Ha!
Yes, it was very hard to organize and to sell so many of her things. Especially considering she did not know we were having the sale (she still wants to think she can come home, even though her doctor says no way). When I pulled up as the sale was beginning on the first day I had a little mini meltdown and I literally had to MAKE myself go inside. After that I felt much better and it wasn't so hard. The most important thing to remember was that it was to help her stay in her new house and that we had already gotten the few things that meant something to each of us. I really regret not taking any pictures as we worked the sale, but we were so busy, no one remembered to take any. However, I will say that we made an awesome team! We proved that the Kelley family sure can work well together! My mom, her sister, aunt and her family, and several of their cousins helped us. Words cannot tell you how much we appreciated all of their help. We never could have done it without them.
