"Very Good, Jodi"

This is my great-aunt May. She lived alone. Never married. Not that she didn't have the chance. She did. But she got very sick when she was of the marrying age and was ill for quite a few years.

She lived in the family home up until she had a stroke and wasn't able to live alone. I was with her when she had her stroke. In the home you can see in the picture. I was 10 years old. It mostly effected her right side. She could still function and actually got most of her range of motion back. She stayed with various family members for quite a few years. She even spent time at our home in Idaho Falls when I was in grade school. Those were good times. She was my grandmother's older sister.

Anyway, Aunt May didn't travel much so people always brought things back to her. Her house was like a museum. Seriously. There was a huge dinosaur bone in plaster, arrow heads in frames, a couple jars of dead snakes, framed trilobites and Indian pottery in a room known as the curio room. People gave her things. She kept them. So, I come by my 'keeping' of things quite naturally.

In my 'intentions' to start de-cluttering my home, I ran across this box. It was in the cupboard with the 1967 World Book Encyclopedias. The encyclopedias are now gone.

That's her handwriting. She had notes on everything.

Now. Would you toss out a box of seashells that your great-great grandfather had bought for his family over 100 years ago? Would you?

Oh. And that chair she is sitting in. Yes. It's in my house too along with its sister-chair and I sit on it daily! I love it. They are fire engine red. Both chairs are at my kitchen table. Keeping those.