“Alone we do do so little; together we can do so much,” Helen Keller.

My chin began to quiver after I opened a text message from my friend Marvin. Attached were photos of people going through a trash bag filled with clothes. Those clothes used to belong to my parents.

For three and half months, I went through items that used to belong to my parents deciding what to keep, what to throw away and what to donate. By the time the dumpster arrived, there were bags lining the wall with the bay window in the living room of their home of 28 years. I was feeling overwhelmed but I didn’t pick up the phone to ask anyone for help. But, my husband saw I was weary, so did my brothers, Kiada and my friend Marvin.They came without needing a call.

Marvin emptied my parents’ closets and bins holding their clothes from the walk out attic. He hauled them out of the house one by one to his SUV so they could be donated like my parents wanted. He also saved their house plants.

It took nine Saturdays before there was almost no trace of my parents left in that house. The physical toll clearing things out took on my feet, knees, left hand and back was only matched by the emotional turmoil. But, I kept going until the driveway was bare too. I donated their cars to charity as well.

As the boxes of what remained of their lives was loaded into a truck and taken to a storage unit, my soul was unsettled. Every day I questioned if I saved enough or donated enough. I was thinking about it today when those photos came, reminding me that every little bit helps especially when you’re in need.

I looked out the window and saw the first snowflakes of the “winter” season falling.
“Those clothes will at least keep those people warm,” I thought. “My parents, who dedicated their lives to service, they would be pleased.”

grief #death #parents #charity #donations #friendship #chronicpain #chronicillness #igg4 #autoimmunedisease #blackfamily