After she died, her daughters went back to her apartment to clean out her belongings. Their mother had many possessions, things that had been passed down through the generations, a teapot from a great grandmother, silverware and porcelain dishes that were pulled out once a year for Christmas, but hadn’t been used again since their father died, ceramics, paintings, some antique knickknacks. Things that the daughters didn’t want.
The sisters noticed that their mother had put little stickers on many of her possessions. On the back of a painting was a sticker with the name Phil. On the bottom of a ceramic cat was a sticker with the name Mary. The sisters’ names were on the silverware and dishes. Some of the names on the stickers were of people who weren’t even alive anymore. And many of the names were not known to the sisters.
Funny how their mother tried to control the future of her possessions. She must have tried to retain control of at least something while her body slowly succumbed to age and disease.
In her final dreams, perhaps she envisioned a great-great-great grandchild sitting at a Christmas table, beautifully set with her ancestors’ old silverware and porcelain dishes. It would have made her happy, made the sacrifice of caring for those heirlooms worthwhile.
Initially, her daughters had intended to donate the contents of the apartment to charity. But now they had a new plan. One sister started polishing the silverware, while the other found their mother’s address book and started looking up the names of people she knew.