Two and a half years ago my husband passed away. During that time we have been carefully sharing his possessions with others. We started with the family and dispensed items the way we knew Grandpa would have wanted. That was easy.
Then we got to the "little bit more complicated stuff" and we did pretty good with that. That is the stuff you give to 2-6 year olds and try to explain that they cannot play with it. Good luck with that.
Then we got to the other stuff. The stuff in the Man Cave. All that stuff that I had no idea what it was. You have no idea how much I have wished over the last few months that Sears still had a catalog! But it turned out that I didn't need that old catalog because neighbors and people I did not know visited my garage sale and told me what everything was and what it was worth.
I know what you are going to say. They told me what it was worth and then bought it for that price. No they didn't. They explained to me what I had and gave me an estimated price for each item. Some of it sold; some of it didn't.
There is very little left now. The garage he built is almost empty. The material things are gone and now his "dash" has taken its place in our family tree.
With every life event I always think back to our ancestors, especially those who lived a couple of hundred years ago in log houses in Kentucky and Ohio. What happened when they passed away? I doubt they had a garage sale, but I am sure there were several things that disappeared out the back door and I am sure there were items that were carefully shared.
But the one thing that remains constant is that person's place in the family. No one else can ever take that person's place. That is why proof and documentation are so important.
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