Last week we travelled to the Sunshine State.
The first few days we visited Brett's mom. She will turn 95 later this year and is starting to show signs of dementia. Brett and his sister went through her storage room while I spent time going through photos with her. A lot of time was spent reminiscing about these photos. Often I had no idea who the people were and she couldn't remember, yet she was reluctant to toss them. I tried to explain that the younger generation isn't typically interested in these old relics so if they didn't have meaning to her, it wasn't necessary to keep hundreds and hundreds of them.
Meanwhile in the storage room, Brett and his sister dealt with tax papers from the 1970s to the present and every brochure for every piece of furniture, appliance, etc. that they had owned. Once done they had 400 lbs. of paperwork to be shredded.
I don't say this to be critical of my in-laws. Instead, it was a reminder of how much has changed regarding keeping photos and paperwork in the past few decades.
The boating activity and pelicans were entertaining as we dined on fresh grouper sandwiches.
Then it was on to visit our son and his family for the remainder of the week. Jaxson was on spring break so there was lots of time for science experiments and many, many board games.
We brought our very old tennis rackets and introduced Jaxson to the game.
Somewhere in my own old photo collection I have a similar shot of my dad with his two grandsons on the tennis court holding their rackets in this same position. My parents loved the game and wanted all of us to love it as much as they did.
All too soon the week was over and it was time to head home.
I never like that part and neither does Jaxson :(
Good memories will tide us over until the next visit.
🌞🌞🌞
What a love filled trip to a beautiful place! I am so glad you had good visits. I know about going through things that our loved ones accumulate over their lives. When my mom moved into an assisted living home after my father passed, my sisters and I went through her things to see what she would?could take with her. It was difficult, because while she didn't NEED most things, they all had some sort of significance to a certain time of her life. As I grow older, I recognize the need to simplify my life and rid myself of those things I thought at one time I couldn't live without. Have a cozy evening!
ReplyDeleteSo hard to believe how big Jaxson is!!!
ReplyDeleteI try to go through stuff now and toss it so David won't have to. My daughter certainly doesn't care about any of it. :(
What a wonderful trip. I like the photo of Jaxson and Grandpa.
ReplyDeleteWhen my Dad passed away last year, we had so much stuff to go through. I'm trying to work on going through things now so there isn't so much to deal with.
I'm sorry to hear you're going through all of that with your MIL. Unfortunately, I think this is pretty common where older people have piles of stuff that should've long been discarded or taken care of...and then it becomes the responsibility of their children. I'm seeing this with my mother (age 83), too. She still lives on her own and is doing (mostly) well, but she doesn't throw anything away. She lives in a 3 bedroom 2 bath townhouse and it's filled with twice as much stuff as we have! I've tried talking to her numerous times about getting rid of stuff, but it falls on deaf ears. *sigh* I don't want to burden our son with all that, so I make sure our house is regularly purged. Although, of course, we're not perfect...we still have more to work on, especially in the basement and garage.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had such a nice visit with your son and grandson!
I'm so glad you had a wonderful trip, especially the time with Jaxson. Love the photo of him with his grandfather.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of shoeboxes of old photos from my in-laws, and some old letters. So much family history there, but I don't really know what to do with it all.
You had a productive, happy trip. It's refreshing to spend time with grandchildren and absorb some of their energy.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a productive time going through your MIL's things. I'm a lot younger than her but I'm already going through old photos no one will want as well as other 'stuff' I've kept. It's an on-going chore.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter!!