Lots of Dust & Memories

My sisters, Mom and I spent our Sunday afternoon cleaning out Aunty La's "wing" of the mobile home. It was just too much for Uncle Wally to deal with so we all spent 6 hours going through everything and ended up with 25 bags of trash! It was so hard to throw away all of the things she treasured, but who is going to keep a large box of paper napkins? Or a collection of clothing tags or 40+ years worth of receipts from Walgreens?
We did find some amazing photos and things that brought us great memories. I lost it so bad a few times and had to take several breaks to cry outside on the porch. But we also had a lot of good laughs too.

Just the beginning of what we were dealing with. Not sure how she walked through that hallway. It's no wonder she never left her side of the house.

She collected the tops from baby wipes boxes. Why not?

A portion of her bedroom. She tore out photos from magazines and advertisement papers and taped them all over the place. She really liked this picture of a dog!

Where she spent the last 2 (or so) years of her life. Sadly she was on so many medications and was growing colon cancer without knowing it, she couldn't tell the difference between medication side effects and a real problem. She even had a toaster, coffee pot and pop-tarts in there. This was her little 'spot' and she made it comfy for her.

Jenny found this while going through some of her things in the bedroom. It was a note to me, with a cross necklace saying she wanted me to have this when she goes home to Jesus.
Getting a note from her postmortem was so touching.

This was her sitting room. She had so many stuffed animals and towels in here. What sent me into a meltdown was that 1/2-eaten cookie on her side table. Seeing that felt like she's just in the other room and coming back to finish it. That broke my heart into so many pieces.

I found this photo of us in her bedroom.

A couple of her many collections. Clothing tags and acorns.

She had a collection of cups! Even one from Taco Bell and it had her writing on it saying who she was with at Taco Bell, where and when! This one is from Disneyland and it says "Erik & Sara. Wally & La. 8-6-89"

She also saved EVERY SINGLE newspaper ever. We had to box those up for recycling. No one could lift the boxes because they were so heavy.
I came to their rescue, no worries.

Wendy kept taking pictures of me carrying the boxes because she was waiting for me to trip and fall and wanted to capture it. She loves me. #jealous

Things they were going to throw out or toss, and I kept. Photos, an old bag, her collection of acorns, and an alarm clock with a tiny heart taped to it that said "Sara".