Life Lessons from Wiser Women

This week has been all about the hustle- from staging, to tagging, to boxing and moving, to photographing what's left to syncronizing watches- this week has been non-stop. So can I just say that once Saturday night gets here I am heading straight for Margaritaville?

The reason for the strange level of productivity has been about Nana. Nana has always tended to be the cause of family hurricanes, conundrums, and Christmas parties so there's nothing unusual about that. Tomorrow and Saturday we will be having an estate sale at her home. The proceeds of the sale are going towards her care at the assisted living home. The whole event has been very bittersweet and will remain so long after her house has been sold.

There are so many memories that get tied to the places where they were created. The hardest part for all the members of my family will be the letting go of the physical location, but not the emotional connection. Her house has been a witness to numerous Christmas Eve dinners, Birthday parties in the basement, open house gatherings that lasted for hours and hours, Saturday mornings filled with cartoons and pop-tarts... Nothing about this house will not be missed.

More than the house, the people who once occupied it will be sorely missed as well- especially the moments that mean so much to us.

I won't forget one particular day, Nana and I were driving around in her old blue Ford pickup truck. We had just gone out on the town- probably eating hot dogs at the Faulkner & Lawson drug store, then to Rose's so I could pick out some Lisa Frank stickers- when Nana pulled over in the parking lot of the Methodist church. We sat and talked for a time, I think we were waiting to pick someone up, when the subject turned to religion. It had been the first time I'd ever spoken to anyone in the family about this matter. "I'll tell you this one thing, Pun'kin. This one thing and you'll never have to go to Sunday School ever again." Her long finger poking the air for emphasis as she looked out the window and surveyed the quiet street, "The one thing you need to remember always is that you should always do what makes you happy. Always do what makes you happy, unless it gets in the way of someone else's happiness. That's all you need to know."