By Janet Manson, Guest Columnist
My husband and I recently helped a young man clean out a house he inherited from his aunt. He was cleaning out the house because he lives out of state and was going to sell it.
We knew the aunt from a group we volunteered with. This was no small house. It was a two-story Victorian built around 1910.
The first time we were ever in the house was when we met the nephew to walk through so we could get a feel for what we were dealing with. My first impression was “Wow!”
While the house does need a lot of repairs, you could look at the house as “Wow, this needs to be torn down” or “Wow, this house has such potential.”
All it needs is someone willing to do the repairs, and they also have the money it will take to do the repairs. I am one who thinks this house could be awesome when fixed up.
This house has the original hardwood floors. There are a total of five fireplaces: three downstairs and two upstairs. Between the dining room and the front room, there are beautiful wood and glass pocket doors
Off the dining room there is a butler’s pantry with all the built-ins. The house has two bathrooms, one on each floor. Both have freestanding tubs with claw feet. The entry foyer has a curving stairway leading to the rooms upstairs. These are just some of the features.
The three things I can say for sure about the aunt is she loved cats; she had seven living with her at the time of her death. She was an avid reader; the family returned 20 books to the library after her passing. She was still working at the time of her death, even though she was past retirement age; she either really loved her job or enjoyed tormenting those she came into contact with on a daily basis.
As we were going through the rooms, we were looking for things that we thought the family should have or might want. In the kitchen I came across a lot of old cookbooks. I asked nephew if I should be looking for any special family recipes, and he told me that aunt was vegan.
This came as a surprise to me because when we would have potlucks, she and another volunteer would always volunteer to bring the meat. Nephew said the joke was probably on us, and we were probably eating something plant-based and we never knew it.
Every room had books. Some were in boxes, some were on shelves, some were just piled up in the corner. We found old books and new books.
One of the interesting things was there were books about different popes, the Vatican and the Catholic church. We also found several Bibles.
This came as a real surprise because the person we knew did not have religion in her life. Nephew indicated she was raised Baptist, turned Catholic, then at some point lost her faith. He could not point to anything in particular that happened, just that it was around the time of her parents passing.
Aunt closed off the upstairs several years ago and turned the dining room into her bedroom. There was no television, no radio or computer in the house. She lived a simple life. Nephew remembers when he was a child that she did have a TV.
Every closet had piles of white linens. We must have packed a dozen black trash bags with the white linens. Who has that many sheets? Especially for just one bed.
When we would come across old photos, we would ask nephew if he knew who that person was. Upstairs, in one of the bedrooms there was a picture of a formidable-looking lady. This picture was in a place of honor over the fireplace. Nephew said he had no idea who she was; as far as he knew, she came with the house. As a boy, he would sometimes sleep in that room, and she scared him.
When we finished clearing out the room, we asked him what he wanted to do with the portrait. He said leave it. We did take it off the wall to see if there was anything on the back, and there wasn’t. Who knows who she was?
On the second day we were there, one of aunt’s co-workers stopped by. She heard we were cleaning out the house, and she had always wanted to see the inside. Aunt would never let anyone in her house, even nephew said it had probably been seven years since he had been in the house, and that time they were only in the kitchen.
This house contained the story of this woman’s life. She did not have the opportunity to clean out her house or organize it. She got sick and passed suddenly. Basically she had people who knew her, but did not “know” her, going through her life and deciding whether to throw things out or donate to charity.
My husband is out of town as I write this, visiting an elderly aunt. My goal before he left was to at least clean out two closets while he was gone. So far, I have not made it to the closet, I better get going. It is sad when it is left to others to decide what to do with the items you leave behind.
The listing for this house shows that it is pending. I hope whoever bought this house will fix it up. I also hope great-grandma is still hanging in her place of honor over the fireplace in the bedroom.
The writer is a resident of Murphy.