General Chat

Just got back from my sister's.
Mum died in Portugal on 21 December. We can do nothing until, at the earliest, mid January.
However, Mum stayed near my sister for 6 months earlier this year, with a view to moving back to the UK next year.
Because of this, she (or rather my brother) brought quite a bit of stuff back in his van, that is now in a storage unit.
We also have a copy of her will - genealogical stuff to go to me.

We went to said storage unit, took stuff like old chests of drawers & beds to the dump, and found a stack of boxes.

I how have 5 HUGE boxes and a small suitcase in my living room (and we're not sure if this is the last, as we've only managed to clear half the unit)
I've been through one box, and will remove the file of gardening hints.
Found a lot of souvenir stuff from Charles & Diana's wedding - complete with humungous squashed Portuguese spider, and lots of knitting/sewing patterns in the suitcase.
I've also found some letters between my gran and her cousins grandmother - which I knew existed, but hadn't seen since granny died in 2003.

....now to box number 2.....

Oh Maggie, so sorry to hear of mums death.

I keep saying to OH we need to sort out all our collection what to others is rubbish, know children will put most in skip.

I did not have the choice of sorting my mothers goods as step children inherited all.

Enjoy having the choice of what to keep or bin.

Carol ;-)

Sorry to hear about your Mum, Maggie.

What a delight for you to find those letters, hope more come to light :-)

Looking through it all will hopefully bring back happy memories along with many tears Maggie. You'll probably find it difficult to know what is to stay and what is to go but, personally, I would get rid of the squashed spider.... :-D

Maggie it sounds like your Mum had done a of of sorting, I hope that going through her things brings back happy memories for you and the tears are in short supply.

Good Luck <3

Agree about the spider Cynthia I would be half way down the road by now.

Carol :-0

What an awful time for this to happen to your Mum and to you. I hope that something positive comes out of these events for you, Maggie. Enjoy sifting through all her memories, and don't feel guilty about binning the spider! <3

Maggie, I am so sorry to read of your bereavement. Please accept my condolences.

So sorry to hear about your Mum Maggie <3

Thank you for your kind thoughts. As I said, we can't do anything in the way of cremation etc yet - we have demanded an autopsy, and Portugal closes down for a month over Christmas.

The genealogy stuff isn't pulling too many strings - most of it is stuff from my granny's house - she was a terrific/terrible hoarder, (depending on your point of view) and I've found, amongst lots of old birthday/christmas cards (that I dried out & mum took to Portugal) their ration cards, and even evacuation notice!!
Also some more letters (I already have their love letters from 1924/25) between my gran & grandad during the war, when Gran was in the New Forest & grandad in Southampton.

A receipt for a letter my gran sent from Southampton Ladies Labour party in 1938 concerning the situation on Spain.
The bill for gran to attend the maternity hospital in 1940.
A telegram from my mum informing gran they'd be coming over on the Empire Windrush (honest!!)
About £4 -0-6d worth of uncashed National Savings, my grandad's menu list from when he was in hospital in 1955, and a newspaper cutting showing children starting school in Lossiemouth in 1960 - and I'm in it :-D

Oh such lovely treasures Maggie, relish them all.

Carol

At least you can sort these things at your leisure Maggie altho I am sure you don't want your home clogged up with numerous boxes and stuff. When my Mum died, after Dad had been gone 5 years, my brothers were a bit too quick at hurling things in a skip so they didn't have to pay any more rent than necessary on her council house (our family home for almost all of my life). It would have been nice to have had the chance to look through more paperwork and such but my brothers aren't sentimental so they weren't bothered.

I hope things go as smoothly as possible with the arrangements you have to make, and you can find reason to smile at lots of the memories that come to mind of your Mum.

Such a shame she couldn't have got back to the UK to live > My deepest sympathy on your loss.

Lizx