The Way Home, Along the Juniata River

It is a sad, sad thing when someone you love dies. Not only do you miss them terribly, but there are unpleasant tasks that await, like dealing with the business that needs to be settled, and sorting through your loved one's things and trying to decide what to do with it all.

My oldest sister died in late July, and it broke my heart to smithereens. I will be the first to admit that I have not had much to do with the settling of her affairs. My little sister had Barb's power of attorney, and so a lot of those responsibilities have fallen to her. She has carried them out well, and my big sister would be proud of her. I know she would.

In prior postings, I have talked about how my sister and I loved to take bus trips to Atlantic City; in the mornings sometimes, we would drink Starbucks coffee and then fill our empty cups with seashells to bring home. The discovery of the last Starbucks cup on my first visit to her house since my sister passed away just about broke me. I held onto it and cried like a baby; no ocean could contain my tears.

On this day, my family members had arranged to meet at Barb's house in Marysville to take one last look through her things, and take whatever we wanted. An auctioneer will be coming in a few days to remove the remaining items, and they will sell everything they can and toss the rest. There is an offer on the house, and so it seems that it is already sold, presuming everything works out the way we hope.

So my husband and I packed a bunch of boxes in our car and took off for my mom and dad's house. From there, we rode with my dad to Barb's house. We were there for several hours, sorting through things, packing stuff into trucks and onto trailers. I filled all my boxes and there was barely room for people in the car when we left for home.

It was miserable work, I have to tell you. My sister was great at many things, such as taking care of people and animals, and being generous with her time and assets. She was not as good at cleaning and keeping her living areas tidy and neat, and she was a collector of all kinds of STUFF. It was also quite hot, around 90 degrees F, and the forecast was predicting thunderstorms, which fortunately held off until after our tasks were done and all of our loads of stuff had been delivered home.

But there were some better and brighter moments in our day. My husband and I stopped along the Juniata River for just a few minutes on the way down; you may see a photo above. We got to spend some time with family, including my parents and most of my siblings. We had a very nice lunch from the Creme Stop. I swiped some of my dad's delicious red tomatoes and we will be enjoying those for days.

After the afternoon's work was done, but before we left to head home, my husband and I were sitting in the living room chatting it up with my mom and dad. You may see a photo of them in the extras. You might notice that my dad is wearing a t-shirt that says BECAUSE I SAID SO, and my mom is laughing. (I suspect that the buyer of that t-shirt was my big sister, who also got such a hoot out of the t-shirts she bought us siblings.) That was one of the sweeter moments in our day.

I know I've used this song before but here it is again. A song for going home, for better or for worse: Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles, with Who Says You Can't Go Home.