pinkyrulestheworldOne thing I hate about getting older is the fact that everybody else gets older too. My parents, my aunts and uncles… it sucks. My last grandparent passed away this year and while I’m pushing forty myself, I don’t love the fact that everyone is getting older. Why can’t we all just stay the same age as when I was about 25 or so? It would make for less heartache for sure.
But that doesn’t happen, and we’re stuck in the creeping pace from day to day to the last history of recorded time. So that’s why I’m making this blog. I’m dealing with ageing parents and now I have to concern myself with their wills (are they made?) their trusts, their homes, all their stuff, etc. I don’t like it and it doesn’t feel good. But it’s the smart thing. So here in this blog you’ll find resources for seniors, from financial to health. From things related to family to things related to organizing and getting rid of stuff.
That’s the hardest part of my grandfather’s passing. All of his stuff. He’s lived in the same house for over sixty year I think, and now what are we all supposed to do with his stuff? A couple of things I want to take; I found a bracelet that my grandmother bought him, and I would really like his banjo. But what about his cowboy hats? Or his bolo ties? All the things that he’s loved for so long are now sitting in empty closets.
So what my aunt and uncle did was to go through a bunch of his clothes and either trash the useless stuff or give away the stuff that is still nice. Goodwill can take loads of things. Goodwill has over 35 donations centers across Alberta (that’s where my grandpa lived). The cool thing about Goodwill is that 30% of their staff has a self-disclosed disability so while you can lighten the load after the death of a family member, donating to them also helps people. Everyone loves sustainability nowadays and thanks to them over 16 million kgs of donated items are diverted from local landfills to someone who could use it.
I’m really grateful for my aunt and uncle doing all that hard work. But what we should have done was to have that difficult conversation with my grandfather while he was still alive to go through his things. But that’s a hard thing to do and thankfully he had all his faculties before passing. But if your loved ones do not, I understand that that particular conversation would probably be impossible.
I also hope that this blog will be a benefit to those of us who are a bit younger. Talking about getting rid of so much of my grandfather’s stuff made me make some hard choices (when I got back in town) and I started cleaning out my closets. There’s no need for so much stuff.
So I hope this blog is useful to you. I’m sorry if you’re here out of heartache, I’ll send you a virtual hug. Take good care of yourself too.
