Yesterday I worked alone for several hours at Dad's house cleaning and organizing. Mike and his son Joey came after lunch and we continued our task of going through Mom and Dad's belongings. Dad kept many things that I wouldn't have thought to keep. I found all of his expired driver's registration cards, his old college notebooks and empty envelopes addressed to him with no letter inside. Among his things I also found Valentines my father kept from his early childhood days. Some were in an old scrapbook and some were laying loose. They were neat to see, read, touch, knowing they meant enough to my father that he kept them for well over sixty years.
Now what do we do with them? We just can't keep everything. What is worth keeping and what isn't?
There have been several items I'm so glad Mom and Dad kept: old letters that testify of their character, letters that express their love for one another, letters that have taught me more about my grandparents, death certificates, birth certificates, papers with the names and birth dates of my ancestors, obituaries of relatives I didn't remember, etc. This experience has changed the way I look at my own belongings. What am I keeping? Is it marked with a date, names, places, my feelings, etc? I came across a notebook style calendar that my father wrote in, sort of like a journal. The problem is, he left out details, too many details. On one day he writes, "Best day ever!" which left me thinking, what happened? Mike and I tried to piece together the story based on other comments he made days before and days after this entry, and also based on the date. We can only guess of what brought him so much happiness on that one day in the Spring of 1996.
Next Saturday there will be more treasures to find and ponder over. In the meantime, I'll continue to try properly preserving treasures for my own children to find one day.
What are YOU keeping?
Now what do we do with them? We just can't keep everything. What is worth keeping and what isn't?
There have been several items I'm so glad Mom and Dad kept: old letters that testify of their character, letters that express their love for one another, letters that have taught me more about my grandparents, death certificates, birth certificates, papers with the names and birth dates of my ancestors, obituaries of relatives I didn't remember, etc. This experience has changed the way I look at my own belongings. What am I keeping? Is it marked with a date, names, places, my feelings, etc? I came across a notebook style calendar that my father wrote in, sort of like a journal. The problem is, he left out details, too many details. On one day he writes, "Best day ever!" which left me thinking, what happened? Mike and I tried to piece together the story based on other comments he made days before and days after this entry, and also based on the date. We can only guess of what brought him so much happiness on that one day in the Spring of 1996.Next Saturday there will be more treasures to find and ponder over. In the meantime, I'll continue to try properly preserving treasures for my own children to find one day.
What are YOU keeping?
