My Mother's House, My Mother's Things

...Continued from yesterday:
     And so on Thursday, January 23, Tom and I set off on the 500-mile drive from Gahanna, Ohio, to my mother's house in Seaford, Delaware to give my brother and sister-in-law a bit of help with the task of sifting through my mother's things and to procure a couple of mementos that I'd wanted from among them, a ceramic on wood wall hanging that my siblings called "Goiter Guy" and a papier maché on wood wall hanging of a dancing gypsy that our family called "Carmen." (see yesterday's post, "The Goiter Guy and Carmen").

     Tom and I stopped for dinner along the way, as we've usually done during our Columbus-Seaford trips, at a Greek restaurant between Baltimore and Annapolis called Hellas,

...where we were, strangely enough, the only ones in the dining room, all the other patrons having congregated at tables in the crowded bar.

     However, we were fine having the restaurant to ourselves, and Tom ordered his favorite Hellas fare,

...the jumbo crab cake,

...while I had a yummy lamb cheese steak with sweet potato fries.

    It was late when we arrived in Seaford, and we spent the night in the cozy guestroom of my brother and sister-in-law.

    The following morning, Friday morning, we headed over to my mother's house where Tom, my brother, sister-in-law and I would spend that day and the next pulling out stuff, 

...piling up stuff,

...going through stuff,

...looking at stuff,

 ...throwing out stuff,

 ...and setting aside and packing up stuff that our siblings or children had voiced an interest in wanting to take.

    "Doesn't it feel weird," my sister-in-law asked, "to be going through mom's house like this while she's still alive?"  
      I agreed that it kind of did. And yet on the other hand didn't we all feel glad that she was still alive? At least we didn't have to do this undertaking with sad, heavy hearts. More pondersome to me was that this was likely to be the last time I'd ever see my mother's house,

...and my mother's things.

     While cleaning out closets, cabinets and drawers we found my mother's wool cape that she received while in Westside Hospital nursing school in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

   In my mother's day a nurse's cape was part of her uniform.

    My mother, probably about eighteen years old, as a nursing student in her cape.

   My mom's fellow nursing students in their capes.

     We also found my mom's dog tags from when she served in the U.S. Army during World War II,

  My mom.

   We also found a treasure trove of old photographs.

...a bushel of which now sit in a box in my living room,

...along with all the other things I ended up bringing home from my mother's house.

     Anyway, after having spent two days going through my mother's things and picking out a few pieces I decided I'd like to have after all, and packing up the things that my children and my  my sister wanted me to take home and keep for them,  as well as a suitcase full of summer clothes for my mother, I had this pile of things to bring home.

    I decided that I didn't want Goiter Guy and Carmen after all. I think I just needed to look at them one more time.
     However, I did send a text out to my children asking if anyone had an interest in requiring either of the two pieces. Turns out two of my children wanted the pieces,

...so we ended up packing them into the car and bringing them home, anyway.

    On Sunday morning, our car packed with my mother's things, I walked through her house for the last time,

...and once more around her yard.

     Then we drove for the last time through my mother's lovely neighborhood,

...and headed back to Columbus.
     On our way home we stopped for dinner in Cambridge, Ohio at our favorite restaurant along the return trip, a Greek place called The Forum,

​...where the food is great, my favorites being the Spanikopita Salad,

​...and a giant blooming onion ring to die for.

---

    And by strange (or not) coincidence, The Forum  in Cambridge, Ohio, has the same piece of artwork as does Hellas, our favorite restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland (See above).

     We wondered when would be the next time we'd be stopping at either of those restaurants.