Texas trip take 2, grandparents' love story, garage sale guru, & an overlooked career opportunity

A Texas update:  My uncle in Texas has decided to move to Chicago. Much discussion and deliberation has gone into this decision, but he bounced back and forth quite a bit so I'm a little nervous. I hope that he'll be happy here. He's lived in Texas all of his adult life and he's 79. He'll live in the wonderful retirement community where my grandparents lived for many years. He'll be 5 to 15 minutes from most of my sibs, my parents, and I. Imagine - my folks' 22 grandkids can visit him too.

Shortly before my cousin took his life 33 years ago at the age of 15, he wrote a story about a boy who felt out of place in the world. This boy felt most at home and at peace when swimming with dolphins. Little Cousin enjoyed family vacations to the ocean. Uncle read the story at my cousin's funeral. As a result of the dolphin connection, there are MANY dolphin statues in their home. We suspect that this large one with a boy swimming with dolphins was commissioned by Aunt and Uncle. 

Funny story:  Both my dad's parents lived to be in their 90's. My grandpa was a confirmed bachelor. He asked my grandmother for a date from a payphone outside the hospital minutes after he was released having recovered from  pneumonia. She was his nurse, and a worry wart. When he called, and they gave her the phone, she was breathless, so convinced that he was having a health issue. Nope. He felt it wasn't appropriate to ask her out while he was her patient, so he waited to call from outside the hospital. They married a few months later.

He  was 10 years older than grandma. They died almost 10 years apart. He was something special and he passed away at age 93. I was 8 months pregnant with Lad, and I was so sad. I really wanted him to meet my baby. 

Grandma lived to be around 97. She passed when Curly was not quite 2. I took the kids to see her regularly, but in her final months she was in a hospital bed and didn't speak much. She occasionally groaned. At the end of a visit, I picked up Curly as we were leaving. Leaning over the bed, I told Curly to kiss grandma good-bye. 

At least this rug had people on it. Cute, right?
The ones with the zig zags made me dizzy.
 My bro and I were initially told that we
 needed to photograph and take notes
on each rug. There are like 21 of them. We
 started LATE at night. Weeks later when
 we got better info, we realized
 this was not necessary.

Well, Curly had been running around the room, not really aware that someone was in the bed. When I picked her up, she giggled, as in LOOK AT THIS - A GIANT DOLL FOR ME TO PLAY WITH. She leaned towards Grandma to give a kiss and Grandma chose that moment to sort of snap out of her somewhat coma like state. She maybe said BYE, but it came out very much like a LOUD guttural groan. Unsuspecting Curly was petrified. She shrieked. Coach and the older kids and I all died laughing, after we reassured her that Grandma loved her and was trying to say bye-bye. 

A big move:  Uncle was getting quite sad whenever any of us departed following a visit. His amazing neighbors and friends are a little upset. They'll miss him. Hopefully keeping in touch with phone calls and zooms will help. He does have cancer, so I think he anticipates that when things get bad he'll enter hospice here. 

My little corner of FedEx.

Ed and I fly down with my dad, on May 20th. The movers come Sunday. My brother, Pat, flies down Sunday. He will fly home with Uncle and Dad. I anticipate many humorous anecdotes surrounding Pat corralling two elderly men through the airport. 

Ed and I will drive Uncle's car 15 hours to Chicago. Coach and I are buying it. It's a newer model Ford with 23K miles. We'll transport the urns with the remains of all 3 of Uncle's family members. 

Most of Uncle's things will be sold at an estate sale. I asked for a few pieces of furniture. I'm getting a beautiful curio cabinet and a love seat and a chair. Photos to follow. 

Was I not supposed to
 pack table linens?
 But they are so pretty. And so
light. Sure, why not? Welcome
 to the mind of a garage sale guru.

I probably mentioned that Uncle is donating his Navajo rug collection to an art museum. Lest you think that all I do is bake, run a daycare, deal with a bully-coach, and attend basketball games - these last several months have also included my involvement in DOZENS of emails and text messages and meetings regarding decisions surrounding Uncle's care, the Navajo rug appraisal, or his move to Chicago, etc. I have not taken the lead on his care or his move, mind you, but it has still been a lot. 

When I was there in Feb., my job was to pack up all the china, crystal, silver, etc. and have it shipped to Chicago to my parents' house. This was before we knew Uncle would be moving here and using a moving van to bring a small amount of his furniture. I packed like 18 boxes and brought it to FedEx. Dad almost had a stroke when he learned how much it was gonna cost to pack and ship. 

More dolphins.

Did I choose too many things to pack? Perhaps. Did I have a lot of instruction? No, I did not. Did Uncle have a lot of VERY.NICE.THINGS? Yes, he did.

I later told Dad, THIS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN THE JOB TO ASSIGN TO A GARAGE SALE GURU WHO SEES VALUE IN MANY THINGS. There are loads of grandkids who will soon/eventually be moving out, Lad is one of them - more on that soon, and getting their own places. Well, they can go shopping in my parents' finished basement for very nice dishes or glasses, etc.

Before donating the rugs, Uncle needed to have them appraised. Long story, but while doing some digging I came across a true Navajo Rug Appraiser. Friends, this woman, who we hired, charges $200/hour. 

Raise your hand if you are re-thinking your career choice? Wishing you could learn to appraise Navajo rugs? Me, too. Have I shared with you how our neighbors feel about our abundance of vehicles?  Yes, we are adding another to our fleet.