Suzy Says

Well, if that wasn’t a manic Monday, I don’t know what is.

I was just settling down to work when the phone rang. It was my brother. Calls before 9 am on my landline tend to be either my boss or my brother (sometimes the same thing), whereas calls before 9 am on my cell are almost always someone on the east coast. My brother isn’t much for idle chit chat, so I figured something was up, and it was. He wanted me to meet him at Mom’s storage, 60 miles away, and help him pack up the rest of the stuff and move it on out.

Work was looking better and better, but I agreed to put it on the back burner (it’s used to being there anyway) and headed out the door, leaving June in charge.

At the storage, it soon became clear that all the remaining stuff would not fit in our brother-in-law’s truck. We accepted the inevitable and loaded it up with things destined for Chez Suzy: the grandfather clock, in its suspiciously coffin-like carrying case; the Atwater-Kent radio cabinet; the glass-fronted bookcase; and the rocking chair my great-grandfather made for my great-grandmother.

We caravanned to my house, wrestled the goods and chattels into my increasingly tiny house, and then went back to the storage for Round Two. We hillbillied the remaining stuff into the truck, destined for the storage container now residing on the property up north, and after a long hug, he went his way and I went mine, each of us plunging into the rush hour traffic armed with the knowledge that we’d never have to meet up there again.

I felt a pang of sadness as I looked at the empty space. Sure, I wish I’d told you all that it was my new year’s resolution to empty it out so I could check that one off and feel good about it. I’m thrilled that we aren’t spending $mumble* on one more month of storage. But I’m sad that we had to sell so many family things, and that things are so hard for all three of us now. I’m also glad that I’m not an only child, and that I’ll always have my brother and sister by my side, no matter what happens.

That’s the power of love.

*When I told the guy at the office that we were clearing out today, he said that we were paid up until May 27, since the charge had just gone through today. Of course. I asked if they could reverse the charge, and he said we were supposed to give 10 days’ written notice, but he’d ask his boss. I was resigned, but on the way out, he stopped me and said they’d reverse the charge. Maybe it’s a sign that things are getting better?