I am a pack rat by and large. I save everything until that fateful day that I can no longer take the stacks and piles and start pitching. It's in my genes. Sort of like being a procrastinator. It's something that I inherited. My Grandma Jane was a pack rat, but a neat one. I remember her neatly cutting open her mail, just to save the envelopes. She'd put papers, soup labels, whatever in those envelopes and they became useful again. I'm not that kind of a pack rat. I just save things, because I cannot bear to throw things away...
Insert Grandma W. She's a blessing by and large to our family. She spoils my kids, loves on them, and is the epitomy of a Grandma. She's wonderful to have around. Lately, in the past few years, her mind is going...slowly deteriorating. She's forgetful and she hoards. I'm talking we're getting to the point of having TLC drop by to film it's getting that bad. But she's a stubborn woman. Stubborn to the core. It's a gene my husband and FIL inherited from her. So when you're shopping with her, and she thinks she needs to buy more, it's really hard to argue with her. She just gets upset. And who fights with an almost 80 year old? Yeah. Not me.
So my SIL and I have been planning a sort of attack on her house the past few weeks. It was decided by and large, because I'm pregnant, and my kids are having birthdays, I would take her shopping for the kids birthdays. A sort of tradition she had started a long time ago, but I decided this year that I wanted to go. While we were gone my SIL would clean her house. The plans were set and we were ready. So, after a long day of errand running yesterday, as I'm making dinner, my SIL calls. "Want to help me start cleaning tonight?" Um, Nope. No, I don't. I really really don't. I'm scared. I went anyway. We left the supper dishes and drove down to Grandmas. When I got there I was amazed. Just floored at what we ended up doing. Out of respect for her I didn't take pictures. But picture counters piled high with boxes of food. Food on the floor in boxes, bags, and cans. There was stuff EVERYWHERE.
We threw away almost 14 bags of rotten outdated - like from 2010 outdated - food. We made a donate pile for a soup kitchen. We took stuff for ourselves. I still feel like we robbed her house. I couldn't sleep last night, because I felt like we just caused some unruly damage to her. She's no longer allowed to cook. People make her dinner. She has frozen meals. But for the most part she eats junk and just keeps buying more. Grandma used to cater. She was an amazing cook. Having that taken away from her due to her mind has been tough on her. So she buys food anyway, hoping she can cook it. Only, she never does. So by me and my SIL taking stuff out of her cupboards that she can't used helped. We cleaned counters, swept floors, and by the time we were done it looked like a new place. But there is still more to do. I have to call her soon to make plans for today. I'm scared. Dreading and praying about this phone call. I don't want her to think we robbed her. We were just trying to help. And in the end, I know she won't miss most of what we threw away. But I still feel awful.
Lord, please don't let me be a hoarder. Ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment