Love is Everywhere
I happened to find the best garage sale yesterday. They didn't have the item that I was looking for but the story of this garage sale was priceless. It told me that if you are looking, you can truly find love everywhere.
24 hours have passed and my heart is still warm. The garage sale was held on the small front lawn of a house that had the same owner for 64 years. 64 years old, a newly married couple bought this house in Elmwood. They raised three daughters in this house. A family of 5 in a small two bedroom house with one bathroom. The daughters said that played outside a lot. The couple thought of buying a bigger house when their daughters were growing but they loved their house and they didn't want to move and they felt they would just get to moving and then their daughters would grow up and leave them with too much house and them having to move again. When the father retired, the family tried to convince them to sell and move to a condo with no snow shoveling and lawn mowing, but they loved their house. When mom became a widow, the family tried to convince her again to sell the house and move, but mom wouldn't even hear the idea. Besides, she had raised three wonderful daughters who had married wonderful men and she had a whole bunch of grandchildren so there was more than enough help for household maintenance.
That is when the daughters noticed something about their mother. She became a hoarder. The daughters monitored but didn't intervene with the hoarding. After all, it was their mother's money she was spending and she had room. If she wanted to fill her time and space acquiring things, that was her business.
Fast forward to yesterday. Mother continued to age and needed more medical assistance daily. She didn't put up much of a fight to go because she knew it was time. Once she was settled, the daughters started the process of selling the house, etc. That is when they collectively saw their mother's treasures. There was nothing really that charities would be interest and their first thought was to hire a crew to haul it all to the dump, but, they knew they would have to tell their mother this and that would break her heart.
They decided to have an enormous garage sale so that they could tell their mother that all of her collections would be going to good homes and that they had made a fortune. They were going to do this every Saturday morning for four weeks. Every item was 25 cents. They didn't want to go through the time it would take to price things and they didn't want to haggle with anyone. This wasn't really about making money, it was about honouring mother - and telling her that they had made money.
First of all, this is 2019. Do you know how rare it is for 3 adult sisters to all get along and be on the same page? Especially, 3 sisters who grew up sharing a small bedroom. Not only did they all get along, they all married wonderful men and the six of them all got along. Again, this is 2019. All three married and not one divorce. All 6 of them were working together and laughing and enjoying this venture. All six of them committed to doing what they thought was in the best interest of mama and giving up their Saturday mornings to do so.
They didn't have the item that I was looking for but there was everything else. Correction, there was 6 of everything else. Atleast. Most items still had the price tags on. Enough books for a library. There weren't rolls of wrapping paper. There were boxes and boxes of rolls of wrapping paper. Boxes of packages of paper plates, disposable cutlery. Boxes of packages of diapers of every size, of every brand, for both sexes, and boxes on unopened adult incontinence products of every size, shape, and model. I guess you never know who might be stopping by and what they may need. Party supplies for every occasion. Souvenirs from every trip made and multiples of each. Even trips to our own zoo. I bet their inventory of gift shop supplies was pretty even. I could go on and on.
I didn't know any of these people prior to finding this garage sale but I ended up staying an hour and talking to them. I also left with $8.25 of items. For those of you how are math whizzes, you realize this is 33 items. I left with 33 items in 24 plastic bags. Yes, mama hoarded plastic bags as well.
These three couples were amazing. Not once did they discourage mama from her "hobby" other than to ensure her collections were not attracting pestilence. In most other families, some one would try to stop her so that there was more money for them to inherit. These six weren't like that. They just wanted mama happy. And, selling everything for $.25 when they could have gotten much more than that. Some of the items could have probably gone to auction or the many items unopened could likely be sold to some time of wholesaler. But, they didn't care about the money. They all wanted to go and report to mama that the garage sale was a huge success and everything sold and people were fighting over things. And, that was the truth. Their whole purpose in being there together and giving up their weekends was to bring joy to mama. And they didn't want to just talk the talk, they wanted to walk the walk.
One of the most beautiful love stories that I have come across in a while. And, you don't have to look that hard, but if you do look, you can find that love is everywhere.
Take some time today and every day to find some.
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