Thursday, November 25, 2010

things.

one by one,

with each trip

to minnesota,

they started to appear.

new to me.

new to maddy,

but obviously

only new to

the two of us.

first it was

the bucket of crayons.

then the silk pillow

and matching silk blanket.

then the baton

with the water

and green glitter inside.

this trip?

a plastic doll house

and all the

accessories that

belonged inside.

no one

had to say anything.

i knew they

belonged to

liz

when she was child.

i could tell

the age of each

item simply by

noticing the wear,

but the more

obvious signal

that they belonged

to her was in the

looks her parents

had on their faces

as maddy enjoyed

playing with them.

they were happy.

because these things...

they're not being

treated as museum relics,

banished to some

storage box never

to be seen again.

they're in maddy's hands,

taking the abuse

of another 2.5

year old.

just as they would

have if

liz

were alive.

so as maddy's crayons

wander off of the paper

and on to the table,

or as maddy's pillow gets

covered in drool,

or maddy's baton is used

as a golf club,

or as maddy's dollhouse

accessories get thrown

from one end of

the room to

the other,

the three of us

can watch,

smiling together,

happy to see

her so happy.

1 comment:

  1. This post was very touching and made me cry. I think all of us want to see the things that belonged to our love one used, loved and cared for by someone who could value not only the item, but who it came from. Your daughter is young yet, but she will treasure those things when she is older even more than now. My daughters who are teenagers, both pick things of their dad's to keep. When I realized it was time to give away some of my husband's things, I slowly began to think of family, friends and organizations he loved to give them to. It made it easier to part with things that had meant so much to him, but I would no longer use. I could do this, because he had always "felt bad" for things that sat unused and unloved, so by doing this I felt I was doing something that would have made him happy and me to feel less burdened and overwhelmed by all of the stuff he had collected. Of course there are many special things I have kept for myself, my daughters and their future children.

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