Last month was a year since Mom moved to the adult family home. I certainly have noticed a big change in her, her ice very good appetite now comes and goes, she thought I was my sister Candy when I saw her Friday and the time before she looked as if she didn’t know who I was. It doesn’t upset me the way it did in the beginning, I am getting much better at not taking it personally because it is part of the dementia.
I have been going back and forth for that year trying to decide about selling my parents furniture and putting our furniture from downstairs up here. The rooms all need painting, but not having furniture or very much will make it easier to paint. I’ve been trying to understand what has kept me from doing it.
My older sister Ellen is very supportive of the idea:
I surely understand why you would want to sell the furniture; you want your own house, as you wanted your own kitchen. I think it’s fine to sell it; Mom isn’t really “here” in the sense that she’ll ever go back to her furniture, any more than she will want her stove. Will it in any way benefit her for you to keep it when you need to get out from under? I don’t see that it will. I have no objection to letting it all go to new homes, where it will be useful and appreciated. Live your life now.
I talked to my sister Candy about it too.:
There are quite a few things she wants and has been making a list. she also understands our need to have our home again after 11 years camping out – the last year has been limbo for us.
My longtime friend Charlotte gave me things to think about – some echoing what I have been thinking:
I can tell you why: your mom is still alive, and even though you Know she won’t ever be able to come home again, somewhere deep inside you keep thinking maybe there’s the tiniest chance, and if she did come home and see her stuff gone, she’d be So Mad!!! That’s what kept dad and me from getting rid of mom’s clothes after she went into the care home, and was just wearing those snap-back dresses or, later, hospital gowns. Dad said to me one time, we really should do something with mom’s clothes, and I said, yes, but I keep thinking, if she should snap out of this and come home, think how mad she’d be to find all her stuff missing!! We chuckled about it, and just left it there. After he died and we were getting rid of things, of course, we did get rid of mom’s clothes. But I think it’s quite normal to feel some hesitation about getting rid of her furniture and things. Maybe you could start with just some small pieces, or even put them out of sight somewhere, so you get used to them not being in the usual spots.
A good friend Rhonda gave me some interesting advice – she is a declutterer and organizing expert: This is part of what I wrote her and her answer:
I don’t know what is holding me back from calling Brigh and tell him I’m ready for him to take the pieces for his shop. I don’t know what it takes for me to give myself permission to do it. I think part may be being afraid of “getting it wrong”; of selling something and later wishing I hadn’t.
The main thing to know right now is that you need to HONOR some of your mom’s things, HONOR some of what your younger sis wants, but also to remember that you are NOT the next storage unit! You and hubby need to be thinking of a deadline for her to come up with the money to have things shipped to her, come get them or help you and hubby bring them to her. Those are the options, clear and simple. You two have already gone WAY overboard in taking care of your mum all these years and it’s high time you started taking care of yourselves – and allow yourself the permission to do so, darlin’!
We talked on the phone later and it really helped to understand what was going on – she had just gone through it with her mother-in-law. She and her husband had to clear everything out in a weekend and her husband felt her would just put the furniture on the lawn for anyone to take.
Some of it for me is wanting to be sure I don’t “get it wrong” or 5 years later wish I hadn’t sold something. I almost felt as if I was pushing Mom out and doing things behind her back – yet, she really isn’t in this world and I don’t want to upset her. Now I realize she doesn’t remember as much as she did, she don’t always know what day it is or where she is.
I realize that Candy and I have more emotion attached to the things than Ellen – she is much more objective and that helps me so much. I heard something on the radio this week that helped as well – keeping everything you have over your lifetime keeps you in who you were. I see now also that being with all the furniture from my childhood keeps me in who I was and having our furniture is who I am . Though in some ways, that furniture is also who I was. It will be interesting to see how it feels after 11 years.
I was frustrated by a woman who was to come and photograph things so she could help me value things for sale. It took forever for her to come and then didn’t hear from her. So I found someone else and sold some things but it was not encouraging. I feel in my naiveté I may have been taken a little. I realized when Jo came back and we worked tougher photographing things in the hall closet, I felt comfortable and at ease with her.
She sells on-line and while she was here, called someone she knows about the things we did and the woman was ready to come over and shop. Jo said she will have the values by next week – we’ll see how this works. It turns out she was very upset to find her camera card didn’t have any pictures on it and she was really upset – must be why I never heard from her.
I said all she had to do was call me, I wouldn’t have been angry – it is not known=ing that irritated me. I told her the story of my Dad who worked with a Wilmington, CA, boat builder in the 30’s – the guy used to be a rum runner. It was on the water and one day Dad dropped a tool in the water – he didn’t want to tell Dick but knew he had to tell him. So he went to Dick and told him how sorry he was that he had dropped a tool in the water. Dick told he” Thanks so much for telling, the guys usually don’t tell me!”. It was definitely not the answer he was expecting from Dick.
As Jo and I were working, I realized I was not comfortable with Brigh – probably the reason I was reluctant to call him and have him take the things on consignment to his shop.
I also had talked about it at the Caregivers Support Group – they were so helpful and reassuring as my sisters and friends. I’ll see what happens next.
I am beginning to think I have begun to give myself persuasion to do this.
Gift of RA 