(Photo from recent visit to the Textile Museum)
Oh dear… From comments to my Weekend Reflections post I gather that I (mis)lead some of you to expect I’d pick up the thread in the next post and go on straight forward from where I left off… Not likely! Life’s all twists and turns at the moment and so are my thoughts.
I said in that post that after my friends left last Thursday I had to turn my attention to other matters. This referred to the fact that on Friday my brother was coming down for a meeting with the bank re our father’s estate. We also spent the Saturday in “the House”, where there is still a lot of “stuff” left to sort out. Much still belongs in the category of not quite knowing where to turn next. In some ways we’re lucky – like no immediate pressure to get the house sold “yesterday” – but in other ways perhaps less fortunate (like neither of us really having the energy to get on with things very efficiently).
As I’ve mentioned before Dad had a collector’s instincts and was reluctant to throw things away. In younger days however he was also known for keeping things in meticulous order. Going through the top layer in his study now, it seems it was about twelve years ago he started just piling things up instead: Important, unimportant, originals, copies, brochures, magazines, press cuttings, envelopes, private papers, bills, photos, research notes (family and local history and national railway history) etc all mixed up. Which means it all has to be sorted through envelope by envelope, sheet by sheet. We have made progress; but still a long way to go. Besides from being a shoulder-aching procedure, it is also sometimes kind of heart-breaking!
To be thankful for:
* Some of our grandfather’s local history research was published in a posthumous book (by our parents).
* A lot of dad’s extensive railway history research was also published in the form of (four) books.
5 comments:
I'm fascinated by the punched card roll sewing machine.
It looks like going through your Dad's stuff will keep you occupied for quite a while to come.
you have much more to do from the sound of this, i had hoped you were getting close to finishing. i am with GB on the fascination of the sewing machine. good shot of it and it looks lot like my grandmothers.
good luck with all that back breaking paper work.
What a sad and tiresome ongoing chore, I know it is just draining. My mom saved things like this and it was something going through her things. Please try and inject some happy things into your life now!!
I dread to think what people will suffer having to go through my paperwork.... I try to keep it in order but trying and succeeding seem a long way apart.
There are a lot of mixed feelings involved. At the same time as I long for it all to be over and the house sold, there may be a kind of therapeutic effect in dealing with it too. Anyway I cling to the hope!
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