Stuff Never Sleeps

Still sparking joy: hand hooked rag rugs, a product of the genius and hard work of the Mills/Clarke/Brown women.

A couple of posts back I mentioned that Bruce's dad would move this month from "independent living" on the 15th floor of New Horizons Tower (NHT) to "supported care living" on the 2nd floor. This was exactly the right thing to do at exactly the right time.

Bruce's dad moved his body down thirteen floors to his new smaller, sparer room without any fuss. All that was left for us to do was figure out what to do with Ken's stuff on the 15th floor.

The guy who helped us move Ken into NHT had admired Ken's 60's vintage coffee table and end tables. So, this past week, Bruce got in touch with the guy to say he could have 'em if he wanted 'em. He did.

Those pieces taken care of, all we had left was a bed, a double width mirrored dresser, a night table, three arm chairs, an occasional table, a cedar chest, an old-style phonograph stand, a thirteen-year-old Samsung TV, five table lamps, twelve pairs of shoes, four tv tray tables, a walker that was too short for Ken to use, several small appliances, four table settings' worth of dishes, two large closets full of clothes, a strong box full of documents and a laundry basket stuffed with photo albums, genealogical information and mementos collected by Bruce's mom.

We sorted through the closets, pulled out what Ken needed and could still fit into (he's put on a little weight since he moved to NHT), put anything too worn into garbage bags and took the rest to the Salvation Army Thrift Store. We made several trips to the Sally Ann that day. 

One chair, one table lamp and the occasional table went into Ken's new room.

We didn't need any of the remaining stuff -- which NHT would put on the curb to be taken away as large garbage -- but took home the cedar chest and the phonograph stand anyway. Bruce thought the laundry basket of memorabilia would have to go with Ken to the 2nd floor, but I said no, there's no room. We took that, too.

We cracked open the cedar chest and found three hand-stitched quilts and the two rugs in the photos above. I put the memorabilia into proper boxes to protect them from dust and sunlight and ... placed the boxes in the crawl space I'd just emptied of similar stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

1956 valentine from Ken Clarke 
to his sweetheart Marna Mills