We finished cleaning out the town house yesterday, after nine trips up there. What a project. I know we threw away some things (like the bird cage) that somebody, somewhere would have taken, but who knows who. Bob and John and I put in the day last Saturday, mostly cleaning out the garage. Then Mom and Lisa and Sharla Morgenstern went up and spent Monday cleaning.
I have to admit that yesterday was a little tougher than I expected. We had the lady from the Oak Glen Office inspect our cleaning job (which passed, with flying colors), called to turn off all the utilities, went out and locked up. While we were cleaning and moving it sort of seemed like it was still "Rick's Place" and that a sort of spirit was hanging around. When we left it was sort of like we'd taken an eraser and wiped off the blackboard or taken a rake and raked up his footprints in the sands of time, and it sort of got to me a little bit. I suppose there will be many moments in the years ahead when a tear or two leaks out.
There were memorials to specific charities totaling about $600, and undesignated gifts totaling about $1750. We haven't disbursed the latter -- tentatively planning to give to the Presbyterian Church, a church-sponsored young peoples' mission to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the Rotary Foundation Well (like in water) Project in India, and Earl Thompson's Nepal project. There may be more. We wrote over 240 "thank-you" notes.