Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Good lord




I am depressed. I know, everyone is depressed sometime, but I am really depressed. It seems like sometimes, life just likes to kick you in the ass when you're down. This past year has been horrible. One thing after another, and another, another, etc, ad naseum. It is wearing me down. I feel like a whiny three year old that needs a nap. Of course, when I do break down and do something like call a friend to cry, I feel like a self absorbed turd. I am tired, and tired of it all.


My youngest sister came down from Chicago to help me with my mom's stuff. She is much more savvy about real estate and dealing with all the people and being nice when she is supposed to than I am. I work in construction for a reason. It is allowable to tell someone to go screw themselves if needed...trying to sell a house...not so much. So I have relinquished that responsibility to her capable hands. I know that she will do an excellent job, and I am grateful that she is willing to come all the way down here to help me with it.

Now, the selling of the house is not really that much cause for heartburn for me. It is just a house. Yes, it was my Mother's house, but it is not her. Without her it is a building, bricks and wood, and paint. Cold and silent. What is dragging me down is in order to actually sell the house, we must first empty it. Now, we are down to the nut cuttin' and this is where I am having a major problem. Kim has hired a woman to do an estate sale. This means that there are no less than three, and as many as six strangers in my mother's house. They are going through her things! They are sorting through her treasures, keeping this and tossing that out. I know that this has to be done, but it is killing me. I know this is what they do for a living, and that they are decent folks, but they are only concerned with the bottom line. They do not know how that little dish with the pixie on the lid got chipped, or that the crude ash tray they threw out was made in art class by her son, and carefully protected for over forty years. They don't care that all those hand thrown pottery vases were made by my mother, and how proud she was when she showed them to us thirty some years ago. They never listened to her tell the plants in her greenhouse that they'd better bloom or she'd throw them out in the garbage. They do not care, they can't afford to. They only value things for the profit they will bring, not the stories they tell. Of course, this is the way things have to be, and I understand, but I do not have to like it. They did not know her, and things are only things. God damn it. They are her things. That a kind, generous, wonderful person's entire life can be reduced to a glorified garage sale......

I am so *hurt*. I can tell you that nothing will make a competent adult feel more helpless than losing their mother. When my father died, I was sure that there couldn't be anything worse. I was wrong. This is worse. This is the woman who when I was born with a severe club foot told the doctor, "thank god she came to us so we can take care of her". The beautiful woman who held my hand through all my surgeries and made me believe that everything was going to be fine. She dried tears and healed hurts. Who will help heal this hurt?


There is no place to run and hide. You can't bury hurt like this. You can shove it aside, but it's always sitting there, like the homeless guy you walk by. You can avert your eyes, but you still know he's there. I know that this will get better. Everyone says it will, so it must, right? I guess that having people go through a person's whole life willy-nilly sticking prices on the things that she treasured is not as bad as some other things. Right now though, it feels like someone is twisting a knife in my heart. It means that no matter how much I wish it weren't true, she is gone. Forever. It is almost more than I can bear. Where do you go from there? I don't know.

4 comments:

Paige said...

Where do you go? Nowhere--you let yourself go through all of this because it is okay to do and it is probably exactly what you need to do it. ITis not a sin to crack a little, and feel overwhelmed and miserable and to miss your mom.

You will come out of it on the other side a better person than you already are, because she made you that way.

It will all be okay

Lazy A Ranch said...

I am so sorry you are going through this, it is hard and it doesn't go away over night. It took me years when my mom died to come to terms that she was really gone. I used to dream about her. I have lost both parents, they will always be in our memories and no one can ever throw that away. HUGS.

Elly'sMom said...

Hey Camille,

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you that you are not alone. There's no need to feel like your burdening someone else with your grief. If you don't let it out, it WILL eat at you, as it is now. As you know, I lost my mom going on 4 yrs ago, it Still hurts, I still mourn. Who Ever had their head up their ass and said, you shouldn't mourn for more then a year, if you do, then you've got a bigger issue then just mourning, in my opinion had not lost thier mother at the time the statement was made. Either that or that was once crackpot Dr.

It took me a good solid 2 yrs to be able to remove my mom's furniture and personal belongings from her house. I did it a piece at a time, vs all at once. It seemed easier that way, for me anyway. I never considered an estate sale, basically because I would rather give her belongings to those that would appreciate it, rather then do a yard sale type thing. Sounds silly I know, after all they are just Things, items, some ppl's junk, but her treasures and that meant that I had to protect them. I couldn't protect my mother from herself, at least I could protect her "stuff".

I feel for you, take your time, each and EVERY person mourns at thier OWN rate, just because your sister or neighbor maybe able to talk comfortably and with ease about your mom and your not, doesn't mean anything. Take YOUR time, do what's right for YOU. If you feel like crying for a day, do that, if you want to crawl back under the covers do that, but.... Don't hang on to it, let it out, then let it go. Easier said then done, I know. Focus on the positive, the fond memories, the fun things, the quirks your mom had, the silly things she would do or say, laugh at those memories, let yourself smile and enjoy those memories. It will get easier, I promise, but do it at your pace, not somebody else's. You'll be OK, I promise, it's not easy, but it will get easier. If you need to talk, email me. OK?

My email addy is lapetix2000@ yahoo.

Smile Camille... You had a wonderful mom who obviously loved you dearly. Smile and think of those happy times with her.

Leigh

Holly said...

you said: You can't bury hurt like this

and I don't think you should. Why wouldn't you feel this loss deeply? Although I don't wallow in my grief I don't discount it as a weakness either. To feel so strongly is a strength, it means that you loved her and she loved you, and that is how it should be.

you wrote: It means that no matter how much I wish it weren't true, she is gone. Forever.

ahhhhh, but she isn't. She's right there, in your memory. Smiling, tending her plants, making those vases, protecting that ash tray. She will never be gone as long as you remember her.

Hugs to you Camille