Grief cleaning

And Yogurtland!!!!

When your last parent dies, you will have to do something heartbreaking. You’re going to have to go through ALL OF THEIR STUFF and decide what to keep, donate and trash. My mom died before she could move into an assisted living facility, so my sister and brother and I had to go through the family house—and go through all of our history—before we could sell it.

We couldn’t even all three be there at the same time because my brother could only come out from New York the week I myself was in New York. So we did it in pairs. My sister had the great luck of being there for both of us. She’s the glue, and also the person who should have been the successor trustee. NOTE TO MY OLDER READERS: DO NOT MAKE THE DISORGANIZED ARTIST CHILD YOUR TRUSTEE. MAKE THE COMPETENT BUSINESS SCHOOL GRADUATE CHILD THE TRUSTEE.

Basically the entire time we’ve been dealing with the estate and trust, I wail to my siblings WHY AM I THE TRUSTEE??!! Because I’m the oldest and parents do it by age. DO NOT DO IT BY AGE. DO IT BY ABILITY.

Things I don’t do well: paperwork. Logistics. Calling and following up banks and lawyers and accountants.

Me as the trustee

Anyway, so we have been grief-cleaning and grief-sorting all week. But we found a silver lining, if not a total rainbow in the sadness. After the day’s work of grief sorting, we always end up at Yogurtland. Now we call our grief cleaning sessions Yogurtland dates.

My siblings after grief-cleaning. Note how FULL my brother’s Yogurtland cup is. It was $15! Bwhahaha

My sister and I with more appropriate-sized yogurt cups!

So there you have it. If you have to do something hard and sad, make it easier by going to get an icy treat after.

You know what else is a treat? Having amazing siblings. I love these guys. They are the best. My favorite people. My people.

Hug your parents. One day they will be gone.

XOXO
Mel