A near-whole month has zoomed by, with me out of place for 3 weeks of it. I left for the US on March 19, knowing that I most likely wouldn’t post anything here while I was gone, and I was right. We were BUSY the entire time. Sarah and I lugged out everything from the storage unit that is holding all the stuff from my mom’s that we deemed to valuable to just give away, including quite a bit of furniture, and about 30 boxes. We had help from Bryce and 2 of his friends to get everything out and re-organized. Then we unpacked every box, photographed and documented the contents, wrote lists for the boxes (which I didn’t think of until after the first load, duuuuuh) and repacked it all.
I had the first week and the last week off, and we made the most of it. In addition to the storage unit sorting, we also went to lots of antique shops, and even took mom and went to Sea Grove, which is a tiny town about 2 hours north of Wesley Chapel, and which calls itself the Pottery Capital of the US. There are more than 50 potters in residence in and around the town. We stayed at a charming bed and breakfast called Duck Smith House overnight on Friday and visited about a dozen different potteries and secondhand stores on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to go back some day. We found some amazing pottery! (not that I need any, but when should that stop you?). On Friday evening we drove 15 minutes back to Asheboro to a steakhouse our B&B recommended, and which I will further recommend to anyone: Hamilton’s Steak House. It was …AMAZING. One of the best meals I’ve ever had and both Sarah and mom had the same experience. YUM. 10/10, no notes.
Sarah and mom had gone to MetroLion a couple of months previously, which is a huge antique and vintage high-end market that is only open the first weekend of the month, and met and talked to a lady who sells silverplate items. We went back on Saturday of Easter weekend and talked to her again and set a date a few days later for us to bring her all our silverplate to look at. She was delightful, and we spent 2.5 hours in her beautiful home pulling out 3 boxes of stuff. We had also brought all the sterling silver with us because we weren’t sure if she would be interested. She wasn’t but she was amazed at the amount and quality of stuff we had and told us we were sitting on a fortune. 😀
She bought a huge pile of silverplate stuff and gave us a decent price for it all. We only had about a box worth left, plus one huge chafing dish that will be hard to sell. She also gave us a recommendaton to a fine jeweler’s in Charlotte that DOES buy sterling, and I set up an appointment a couple of days later for us to take all of that (another 3 boxes) to be appraised and sold. We sold the vast majority of the silver to them at a great price (since silver is still relatively high right now), apart from a few pieces that Martin, Karin, and Danely picked. (I kept a silverplated tray with berries on the handles).
It seemed like such a shame to sell all of the beautiful pieces, but honestly, no one (in our circles) uses that kind of stuff anymore (or wants to polish it), or entertains that way, and better that it either get resold to someone who will love it or melted down to make something else that someone WILL use and love.
We talked to our buyer about the other stuff we had, and ended up making another appointment with him 2 days later for him to look at some jewelry and all the coin collections that had been accumulated by my father, Sarah, and John. He was great and and very informative, and patient about our million questions and the boxes and boxes of stuff we pulled out for him to look through (bag after bag of wheat pennies…). Sold a large amount of that stuff, and then spent the afternoon rolling more coins for Sarah to drop off at the bank.
We also sent several inquiries for selling to replacements.com, which deals with cutlery, dishes, and collectibles, but didn’t have enough time to really deal with everything, plus we found out after the fact that we needed to MEASURE the dishes, not just count and photograph them. So that still has to be done before we start the selling process. And Sarah and I did some research on trying to sell some of the stuff ourselves, either by renting a booth or shelf at one of the antique places (POSSIBLE) or selling on eBay (SO MUCH WORK). If I lived closer I could certainly see us doing it, but I don’t know if Sarah has the ork to do it by herself. We’ll see. We sent an inquiry with photos to an antique dealer about the furniture (most of which is not in great condition and is probably only good for Goodwill), and the silverplate lady is interested in at least one of the flatware sets but neither of them has responded in the affirmative yet. I started a Word doc with photos and info from all the miscellaneous pieces that we have to deal with (Mom has over 50 vintage baby plates alone) so that we can quickly get at the information for anything we DO want to sell, but it’s a long process and a lot of work.
I worked the middle week of my stay and left to come home to unsunny, cold, not-yet-springy Sweden on Saturday, arriving mid-day on Sunday. I’m SO jetlagged that I feel drugged all the time both yesterday and all day today, at work. It’s great to be home.
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The other thing that happened while I was gone was awful. My best friend Debbie’s husband was diagnosed in March with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer which had already spread to the liver and other organs by the time they knew what was wrong. Debbie let Camilla and I know at the very end of March, once they knew the worst, and his decline was fast and dramatic. He went into palliative care by April 2, and passed away already this past Thursday, 2 days before I flew home. It feels unreal. He was only 6 years older than I am, and the kindest, funnest, most alive GOOD guy. It’s unfathomable to think that he’s gone, leaving Debbie behind. Their 3 adult children were able to be with him at the end as well, and Debbie’s sister was also there. So awful and unfair. Right at retirement age, with a little grandchild, and so much more time still ahead…all stolen away. It certainly brings home the truth that there are no guarantees for anyone. I am heartbroken for them.
A reminder to be aware of what you have and to appreciate all the love and good things because you never know what is waiting around the corner.
Mood: somber
Music: Dagny—Moment