Sweet Farewells

Who would think it would bring such joy to be getting ready to say goodbye to what has long been familiar and loved?

Ah, but it is a happy time for me.

One of my daughters called me pretty much out of the blue not too long ago; the call itself was not 'out of the blue' - we talk all the time - but the request was.

And so I'm keeping my eye on the old flowerbed that used to have scads of Lily of the Valley, in case there are survivors who would maybe flourish in a new home.

I'm also emptying out and getting ready to transport a couple of antique dressers that will be going along for the ride to that same new home (and probably makeovers).

It's entirely possible that, added to the collection, yet another antique dresser will make the trip, this one to get it one step closer to its final destination, which is the home of another daughter. With this one goes a heavy Victorian standing lamp base and a colored leaded glass lampshade (from my grandmother) to top it - and a quilt made by my grandmother for good measure. 

The things from my grandmother have come to me via my own mom, which makes them all the more special.

I'll likely throw in several more quilts for the girls to draw straws over, and a pair of pretty little cut glass lamps (also from my grandmother).

Rounding things out, into my beat-up little old truck will go the chiminea I so rarely use.

So how is it a happy thing to be saying farewell to these much-loved and oh-so-familiar things?

Well, they're moving on to the next step in their journey, where they're supposed to go. The whole point of me keeping them for all this time has been to pass them on to the children and grandchildren of the future. 

There are other things that I will keep for a time yet - because I am not ready to tell them goodbye just now. But in due time they too will go onward.

To have my daughters ready to accept them, that is a deeper joy to me than you might think.

And so there is no 'bitter' to go with this 'sweet'.

It is pure sweetness.

That dresser at the top of this post? It's been tucked into a cluttered corner of a mostly un-used room of my home for years, gradually collecting things that will go along with it one day (and that day seems to have come!)

I can't help but think it deserves a bit of a better fate than to be just stuck away like that, you know? It needs the TLC it will receive at the hands of my daughter and son-in-law ... and it will be lovely once more, put to good use and loved still.

No, it is not one that prior generations of our family has used. Its history is linked to that of this town where I and these daughters of mind 'grew up'. Some years ago, when they were children, a local family (friends of ours) had an auction of many of the contents of a Hotel that had been in their family for some time. 

My girls needed dressers. We went to the auction. Having almost no money, I knew I could not afford the 'really good' dressers. My heart sank within me as they did indeed go for many more hundreds of dollars than I'd ever had in my bank account. Would I fail to get dressers for my daughters?

Looking carefully at the collection, we found a couple that were in 'not-so-hot' shape. Surely these would go for less.

And so ... when the first one came up, I put in my bid.

Glancing around, I saw people quietly talking, gesturing in my direction but not talking to me exactly.

Nobody bid against me, not even the 'big dealers' who had flocked to this sale for its incredible collection of antiques.

When the other dresser came up, one person did bid against me. One. Once. So it cost me a bit more.

Even so, my daughters got the dressers that they needed, with pretty mirrors to boot!

And now that they are all grown up, with children of their own, they'll get them back again.

Tell me that ain't pure sweetness!