The Burlingames

I spent some time this weekend at Dad’s house doing some cleaning, sorting and packing of Mom’s stuff. I was very fortunate to have a very dear friend of mine, Sarah (Foulks) Rabe come with me. She was very helpful, encouraging and hugely supportive.

It was bittersweet, sad and fun. I was able to share a lot of memories of Mom with Sarah. We did some good laughing, lots of reminiscing, lots of sorting and lots of ‘goodwilling’. Dad wasn’t around much of the weekend, which in hindsight, was probably good for the both of us. Sarah and I went through everything that was stored in the two bedrooms, mine and Brianna’s old rooms. We made a good pile of stuff to possibly sell at a garage sale, bagged up lots of clothes. We started a few tubs of items to save for the future – stuff I eventually want and stuff to save for Dad.

I asked Dad what items he wanted to keep for decorating his new house. He said he didn’t know what he wanted for decorating, I told him that since I had his entire house decorated in my mind (I’m a woman, I can’t help it) that I would only keep the essentials. He just laughed at me. :-)

It was a very bittersweet weekend. It is yet another transition we have to deal with in this healing process. I know Dad needs and wants to be out of a house that has so many memories (good and bad) but it is also the house that I grew up in, have many memories (good and bad) and find comfort in calling it