This post isn't really about Emily, but she was there--so I guess you could say it was an experience for her...not one that she will likely remember. For those of you that don't know the history, my gma Leader is 95 years old, and last month after a week of really icky sickness had to move to the nursing home. Saturday afternoon my mom called me to say that her and my Aunt M were over at gma's house, cleaning out the attic. Now, I know from stories that the attic is probably crammed full of treasures and what not, gma had lived in the house for 50 years, and grew up in a world where throwing things away wasn't an option, "because we might need that someday". (Unfortunately Chuck will tell you, I have a little bit of that gene!) So I was intrigued as to what they would find, Emily and I packed up her stuff and headed over to the house. I am so glad I did. We found treasure upon treasure and Aunt M was able to tell me stories I had never heard about gma.
For example, we found several notebooks from when she was in nursing school (circa 1930) one of which was notes from a music class, I learned gma had once played piano.
I knew that in my lifetime gma had never driven a car, so I asked Aunt M if she had ever driven....nope....when she was growing up Uncle D learned to drive 1st, so was given the job of driving her and her sisters, then she would take the train or bus wherever she needed to go. Can you imagine.....never ever driving a car?
We found the Leader family Bible, it had belonged to Thomas Leader, who was LC's dad, who was Lestor's dad, who was my gpa.
We found boxes and boxes of letters, some of which were postmarked as long ago as 1930....I can't wait to read through them and see the stories they tell. Hopefully someone will have the time to put them in albums to save them.
I learned that gpa Leader built the china hutch that gma's china was stored in.
I learned that Great Uncle D painted the 2 pictures that have hung on the wall of the living room for as long as I can remember.
I learned that there was stuff in the basement that Aunt M can remember moving into the houes, that hasn't moved since that day 50 years ago.
We found the small child's chair, that is in the picture of my gma when she was 1 year old.
I again realized, what a good idea it is to label all pictures while you still remember who the people are, because 100 years from now, people will find those pictures and have no idea who they are and wish they did!
I could go on and on......but I won't :)
I'm heading over to the house again today with dad--so we'll see what stories he can add to the list!
While it is sad to know that gma Leader will never live in that house again, and that we will never gather there for family get-togethers, it is a blessing to know she is doing well and being taken care of. And that she saved all of these treasures for us :)
