When the Things Were Your Parents'
Doris had typed every church bulletin on it for thirty years.
Picture a woman named Sadie, 66, whose mother Doris died last spring at 92. Sadie is preparing to live abroad. Her mother's small apartment holds a typewriter, a blue wool coat and a pair of garden shears, and Sadie has not decided what to do with any of them.
The typewriter was the hardest. Doris had typed every church bulletin on it for thirty years. On Saturday afternoons Sadie used to sit on the floor beside her and feed in the paper. Sadie told her brother, "Mom would want me to keep it." Her brother said, "Mom would want it to be used."
Sadie stayed up that night thinking about the second sentence. She remembered Doris saying, years ago, while she changed the ribbon: "When I am gone, don't let this machine sit." Doris wanted the typewriter to keep working.
Sadie asked at a stationery shop whether anyone was looking for a good typewriter. The owner introduced her to Noah, 23, who wrote poems and typed them out on a borrowed machine at the library's writing club. Sadie set the typewriter on his table and fed in a sheet, the way her mother had.
| The thing | The feeling it holds | Where it went |
|---|---|---|
| Typewriter | Saturday afternoons with Mom | To Noah, who types on it every week |
| Blue wool coat | Winter walks | To a neighbor who always admired it |
| Garden shears | Mom's tomato rows | To the community garden down the road |
Noah typed a line on the sheet. The keys clacked and the bell rang at the end of the line, and Sadie closed her eyes. It was the sound she had heard as a child, and now it came from a young man's hands. The typewriter had served Doris for decades. Sadie had owned it for one spring, and she was glad to be the one who handed it on.
You could…
- Ask yourself what your parent would have wanted the thing to do next.
- Write down your parent's sayings and the labels on things before the original goes anywhere.
- Tell the next owner a short story about the thing, and write it down for them.
What did your parent leave you that you hope someone will use? Share it below. A reader sorting a parent's bedroom could feel less alone after reading your answer.
Tell us in the comments