Estate Sales

My friend and I went to an estate sale today and as we walked through the house and picked through the clothes, purses, linens and the stuff of this person's life, we wondered about her. Then I saw a name and my friend realized it wasn't from the death of an elderly person, as most estate sales are, but rather a husband and wife who were a murder/suicide from the past year. We left immediately, not wanting to be there any longer.

Estate sales are ALWAYS sad -- to think of pawing, as a stranger, through the leftovers of someone's life -- all the things that the family didn't want. With old people, sometimes it's an art project or handmade item that one knows they spent hours on, just to have it have no value to their children or grandchildren. At my first estate sale, I bought a handmade apron I didn't even want just because I wanted SOMEONE to value the legacy of the little old lady who left it behind.

In today's case, though, it was somehow surreal. There were shiny, sparkley blouses and dresses, lipsticks, dishes, tools and collanders and all the things we all use in everyday life -- just collected there, abandoned in mid-life. The thought that this couple had lived there until the moment of their end and that their end was so sudden and violent left a pall over the entire house. Had I found a "treasure" there, I wouldn't have bought it for any price! It was too much like blood money -- like a vulture feeding on carrion.

What drives people to such acts of desperation and hopelessness? How do their families carry on afterward, or their friends? One can only pray that they find peace and an eventual silencing of their unanswered questions!

Thanks for visiting.