Half Life – 54 – skippity
November 12th, 2021
The work clothes were the hardest decision and took nearly three years to make their way to a charity shop for a new lease of life. Suits, work shirts, and formal shoes were parked in their wardrobe like a declaration of hope that, one day, they would be worn again. Taking them down and bagging them into suit carriers was a leap of acceptance which should have been taken long ago. The winner of the not inconsiderable contribution was the Salvation Army, for the simple reason they did not insist on all of them being dry-cleaned before accepting them. Once gone, and staring at the space they left behind, it showed how they should have been released a long time ago as part of accepting a new reality. Somewhere, in my mind, they are helping land a much-needed job or kick off a first day at work, helping someone into a new reality of their own. Only two suits made for our wedding remain as I could not part with them. Like the marriage, they have survived beautifully all these years.
For less personal items, it happened in steps. First the stuff no one wanted or had touched for months went into boxes or bags and was pushed in the corners of rooms, or sometimes stacked up on shelves. As the clutter built, and enough time passed for it all to be fully forgotten, the boxes and bags found themselves being moved to the garage. There they sat, nibbled by the mice, until the last step was initiated, and the skip ordered. It was part of a drive, several weeks before chemo was due to start, to take advantage of the last few sunny days and catch up with some of the long list of house projects. The huge steel vessel turned up and, with the clock ticking for its removal, The Boys did not need a great deal of encouragement to start flinging boxes, bags, and broken objects into it with as much violence as they could muster.
It was never going to be plain sailing. Seeing so many once loved toys land with a clunk and a splinter, was too much at times, and the pile of those being saved from their fate grew next to the skip. The idea that there could be no reversing of decisions on what was to be thrown started to be ignored and the protests had to be dealt with all over again. It took a while, but everything in bags and boxes made it into the skip, joining the broken lawnmowers, discarded electronics, old radiators, and cracked crockery. Balancing out the Boys’ desire to save discarded objects, The Wife started to get ‘chuck happy’ and moved away from objects meant to be thrown and started targeting materials meant to be in garages, just in case they are needed. Lengths of wood, off cuts of carpet just the right size to be useful, and those odd-shaped bits of metal no one knows what they were for but should be kept, all started hitting the skip. Only a few survived, so let’s hope no scrap emergency pops up or The Boys don’t develop a taste for DIY.
The garage, dominated by junk for so long, looked forlorn and bare once emptied, as if waiting for something to take up the space. Certainly not a car; that would be a waste. An almost cleared loft, the emptied cupboards, and half cleared wardrobes all point to a separation between the past and what lies ahead. That moment of reluctant acceptance which, probably, should have happened long ago, was finally taken.
Wow - very impressed! Well done team Elvin!
I always knew you had an inner Marie Kondo!! 🇯🇵 I hope you are now only surrounded by things that ‘spark joy’!!! Have you started folding your underpants yet??? Good luck with the chemo xx giant hugs xx always xxx