Molly's Place

Saturday after the Aunt's Meeting, Mom and Dad took Baylor to their house and I meet Andy and Tammie at Molly's home.  I knew I was in her will but I thought it was just for the enamelware we bought together.  We would be shopping and both covet an item.  So we would agree that one of us could buy it now, but when we died, the other would get it.  Lori knew that if I went first Molly got first choice on my collection before she started getting rid of it.  When we received a copy of Molly's will, we were named to receive her entire house hold contents.  I was shocked when I read that.  I called Andy and told him the story of the enamelware and that we were not prepared or able to take everything in her house.  Anyway, Saturday was the first time we could meet there to get started. She owned a small half a house on a old and established street in Lancaster.  She loved her flower beds as much as I do and it was fun seeing them start their growing season.  Her front garden was primarily a white flower garden but there were pops of other colors also.  

Andy is in the door goofing off for a photo. He looks so much like Molly in the eyes.  He already lost one brother years ago, before I knew Molly and both her parents died since we have known each other.  Andy and his sister Cindy are the only two left.  He is quite and funny and Cindy is a whack job.  I know Molly would agree with that assessment   

I took photos of the rooms so I could remember it in the future.  We had many good times in her home over the years and I was so weird to not see her sitting at her dining table or her couch.  

When she first moved into her house she was asking about the tiles in her bathroom and how she did not like them or the wall colors.  I looked and her and told her to just paint the walls then.  She was a bit shocked at the idea because she was a renter all her adult life so painting walls was not an option.  She went with the idea and we painted several rooms in her house.  I took the cabinet doors off and painted them at the time we were living in our old house.  We painted the walls and to match the cabinets.  

The house was old, the kitchen was tiny!  One person could be in there at a time.  And she was a collector like me so there was more stuff than space.  But she made many a good meal out of this tiny space and cleaning it out was sad.  I did find her cook book that she wrote her favorite recipes in and that lives with us now.  Someone in the family must have kept her recipe box because I could not find that.  

Her last day at her house was Christmas Eve day and the table was piled with her bakeware for the holidays,    cookie pans, cheesecake pans, loaf pans.  And with the painted Christmas ornaments she made every year.  The bags on the floor had the items she had at rehab in January.  Is it wrong that I fished out the gifts we gave her at Christmas?  She never was able to sleep on her sock monkey sheets or use her tippy tree cookie cutter, or her lavender bath soaps.  

The living room had more items from the hospice and her funeral.  Andy gave me a large pile of photos and he told me no one in the family expressed any interest in anything so I was free to take whatever, that is what she wanted anyway.  

At the top of the stairs is bathroom, painted in a lovely lavender shade. 

I made the sheer shower curtain.

I did take one necklace that reminds me of her.  

Across the hall was her bed room.

It was the second room we painted.  The walls are a lovely deep raspberry and the ceiling is a pale peachy orange.  The colors look really nice together.  At the time I worked at a fabric shop and I found the perfect fabric for curtains.  So I made those too. 

The other bed room was white walls with red, white and blue decorations.  I spent many a night there when I would stay over.  There is a tiny hall closet on the left also.  

I was there from 2:15 to 5:30, with a run to the grocery store to use the restroom as her water is turned off.  Andy and Tammie had left after I arrived so I worked alone, talking to Molly and rooting through things.  It was sad, I cried many times.  It is so weird to be cleaning out a person's house.  It is hard to describe and I know I am not the first one to do this but it is the first time I have had to do it.  

I worked until the back was full and I did not get a few pieces that I will need to go back for.  I do not plan on keeping everything myself but I will spread it around in my family first before I decide what to take to an antique store.  I need to thin my collection as well so I guess that will be a summer project this year!