I discovered late last night that there was an estate sale at my aunt’s house. She’d passed away over the holidays so we’d been wondering if they’d have an estate sale. My mom and my aunt had been estranged from one another for several years and we’d therefore been somewhat estranged from that side of our family. In any case, late last night I was scrolling through various estate sale sites and came across one in the town where my aunt lived. I was several photos in to the listing photos when I saw a piece of artwork done by my other aunt, and then I poked around a little more to see if anything else looked familiar and saw pictures of my cousins on a dresser-so that pretty much confirmed that it was her house. Unfortunately the sale had started on Saturday – so we’d already missed the first two days, but there was one left. I messaged my mom and sister and we made a date to meet up there today.

My mom had seen several things in the photos that she remembered belonging to her mother, her Grandmother and her Great Aunt, but thankfully we’d set our expectations pretty low for finding anything left that had sentimental value. With that in mind I was delighted to find a set of sorority and fraternity paddles that had belonged to my Granny and Grandpa and my mom ended up finding two pieces of art that had been carved by her Great Uncle. I found a few other treasures as well.

I know that its often the case that someone has passed away when the family is holding an estate sale…and its usually so interesting to explore the house…but it is an altogether different experience to walk through a house that you’ve been to many times before and so surreal to find a few things to which you have a personal connection. I kind of felt like it was meant to be for us to find the listing before the sale was over and to stumble across a few things that helped us connect with several loved ones who have passed away, including my aunt.