Are We There Yet?

I can finally say that I have been to an auction. My mother-in-law sold a sizable chunk of her worldly posessions on Saturday to veritable strangers. What you thought was junk went for big money and what you thought was treasure went for a pittance. Maybe it was the sentimental value meter that gave the implied value. One man's junk is another man's treasure. It was tough at the start because we had to pull my mother-in-law away from the sale items because she would rummage through them and pull things out. My wife had to pull her mother inside and set her down to read her the riot act. "Leave the stuff alone. You will never use it and it is not worth anything. Sell it while you can and move on." Not an easy message for a 70+ year old to agree to.

Once the auction was over, she got the total of what her posessions had sold for. How can a life time of accumulation be sold for next to nothing? Not that she didn't get a nice total but it is never what you think you will get. But they are just posessions. The worse thing was that not all of her stuff had been moved to her new condo yet so what she pulled off of the sale items added to the mountain of stuff yet to go over. My wife has been running for the past two weeks to take care of things for her mother. Taking care of the loan, the closing, the moving, the auction, and running during all of her free time. All the time, my mother-in-law has done nothing but complain that things are not suiting her and basically complaining about everything. My lovely wife is at her wits end. She loves her mother but she does not like her very much right now.

My mother-in-law has posession of the house until Friday. She will move the last of her stuff over during the week and begin life in her new home. Her next complaint was who is going to help me unpack. My tirade to my wife last night was, "She's retired and has all day, every day to unpack and she expects you to neglect what you have to do to help her do something she has unlimited time to attend to. That is the epitomy of selfishness." It seems to be everyone's problem but hers that there was a lack of planning over the years. Alright, stop the complaining. She is still a wonderful person who is stressed out and needs our love and prayers. Her generation lived through the depression and things mean more to her than they do to the baby boomers. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here. I will pray on it.

Icool

Cobb