To Grandmother’s House I Go. Again. For the Last Time, This Time.

photo credit: quinn.anya

Tomorrow I’ll be working a half-day and then will hit the road for Central Virginia, where I will meet my aunt and uncle, my other aunt, and my cousin and her husband. We will be spending the next three days packing up my 98-year-old grandmother’s house in preparation for her move to Winchester, Virginia to be near my parents. She has officially reached a point where she shouldn’t be living on her own any more (much less driving, which, yes, she still does).

Originally I entertained the idea of her moving to South Carolina to be near me, but the very week she was meant to come visit me, she opted to go to Winchester to look at elder housing there. She liked a condo that my parents had found, and here we are now, packing up her house.

Fortunately, her current house is small (five rooms, two of which never get used), so there isn’t a LOT to pack. Unfortunately, in the last few years she has taken to squirreling away food in her house – I found cake mix boxes under her kitchen sink last time I was there. At one point she also had 5-6 cans of frosting on her fridge door (I think there are only 3-4 in there now, but only because we’ve tossed a couple of the older ones while cleaning out her fridge). Apparently the urge to bake strikes often, but is rarely realized to completion.

I wouldn’t say her house is filthy, but it’s definitely not clean. So I’m debating taking face masks to use while I’m there. But I wonder if she’d be offended if I whipped one out while cleaning out a closet or two? Can I tell her I’m allergic to dust? Is that a comment that would offend someone who knows she never cleans her house but still feels her house is clean? Who knows! I’m also tempted to see about taking a few sets of rubber gloves, but I already know that she’ll definitely get offended if I wore those. Maybe I’ll pack them and then wait and see whether I need them or not.

In any event, I believe we’ll be taking more stuff to the dump than we’ll be packing. She may balk at that, but the fact of the matter is that she just doesn’t NEED a lot of the stuff that’s in her current house anymore. And even moreso: she probably has no idea what she even HAS in her current house anymore!!!