™

Heartwings Love Notes 796 Walking Through My Mother's Life

Heartwings says, "What people leave behind them tells their story."

The medium sized cardboard carton was waiting for me to open and sort through it. I had brought it back with me from my mother's storage unit in South Carolina. It contained paper of all sorts that my mother had seen fit to keep throughout her life. Now for weeks and then months it had sat waiting for me to go through it. I kept moving it around in an effort to motivate myself. Finally I put it where I could not ignore it: right under my desk. I had to look at it every time I sat down to do anything. Finally I got tired of looking at it and set to my task.

Some of what I found was reminiscent of her life in the 40's and 50's: bills and sales slips from the department stores she shopped at, electric bills and bills for milk delivery, dry cleaning and so on. The prices of things from those days were interesting. It was both surprising and sad to see what a dollar used to buy. The names of the stores brought back memories of being with her on shopping trips when the department store was a wondrous place holding all sorts of interesting things to look at. There were also paid bills for expenses related to her art and the galleries she had under her own name.

The quantities of letters on thin airmail paper were impossible to read. Plus many of them were in German or Spanish. The dates on some envelopes went back to before my mother married my father. It seems she had quite a collection of boyfriends and there were many letters, some I could decipher a little addressed to her in endearing terms. It amazed me that she had managed to keep and haul around that collection for so long. The earliest went back more than 70 years. I had a wonderful walk through her life and times, and I found myself happy to have been able to touch into my own memories of those days.

It seems to me that things were far more innocent then. There were rules to be followed. These had been handed down from generation to generation and applied as long as life was stable and people's roles mostly well defined. There was more safety in living that way. There are people who wish it were still like that today, however their numbers are dwindling. Once change begins it cannot be stopped or the results will be like a cancer that devours its host. Growth often comes about with pain. However, the freedom of being out from under the rigidity of the life my mother lived with is precious. I am grateful for it.

May you find pleasure in the past and joy in the future.
 

I love to hear from readers and would be honored if you would comment and let me know any suggestions or thoughts. If a friend sent you this, you can sign up at my web site, www.heartwingslovenotes.com, where more love notes can be found in the archives.

Blessings and Best Regards,
Tasha Halpert
 

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