One more thing

Mother loved the beach. When we were going through her things, there were boxes upon boxes of shells she'd picked up at the beach when they lived in Corpus Christi. She was crazy about the south Texas beaches---until she discovered Florida.

Navarre Beach, Florida made her happier and more content than I have ever seen her. She loved it there (we all did).

Here's a picture from the last "good" Navarre trip, before the big stroke that began the penultimate chapter of her life (2004---2008).


Speaking of going through their things, do your children a favour: get rid of ALL of it before they have to do it. We sifted through literally hundreds of boxes of Mother and Dad's things (mostly Mother's). There was the Santa Claus collection (she loved Christmas, she loved Santa, she loved Santa figurines, and there were hundreds of them). There was the bunny collection (she loved bunnies, she loved bunny figurines, and she collected thousands of them).

I have a large house, twice the size of Mother and Dad's in Malvern; my sister has a much larger house than mine. We filled ours up with those family mementos without which we couldn't live---and still there were more cartons. Hundreds. Boxes and boxes. I have 3 boxes full of pictures that I know are family---but they aren't labeled and I don't know who they are.

It's amazing what we accumulate and why. I had a huge garage sale earlier this year (over $1,000) and still have tons of junque.

I figure, it's a Rachel-David-Nathan problem.