November 15th, 2025
It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the midpoint of November with the holidays about to crash down on us. It’s even harder to believe given that I’m sitting out on my patio as I write this and it’s 66 degrees. It’s been the quintessential “Fall day” — windy, leaves blowing all over the place, the smell of fire on the air along with the leaves. Absolutely gorgeous day.
Not one to not take advantage of such weather I got quite a bit done outside today — blowing leaves out of the gutters (and clearing a particularly nasty blockage in one of our downspouts), getting rid of old plants, etc. I had actually planned on cleaning out the trap in our washing machine as well but after all the work outside (and frankly being physically spent. I’m getting old and am already out of shape…) I figured it was better to enjoy the weather the rest of the afternoon while watching the Illinois-Maryland football game.
Speaking of Big 10 football Michigan was at Northwestern today…at Wrigley Field. It’s always fun to watch when they play football there and it’s not like it’s really all that odd. After all the Chicago Bears played there from 1921 to 1970. These days thought things have been reconfigured so much for modern baseball they need to take out seats, etc. to get the field ready for football. Somehow Northwestern managed to blow a 22-21 lead with about a minute to go and lost to Michigan 24-22. 🤷♂️
Back in 1995 my Great Aunt passed away. She was the last link for me to the part of my family I didn’t really know that well. All of my grandparents were long gone before I was 10.
About a year after she passed my cousin (second cousin I guess, my Mom’s actual cousin) showed up with what remained of his parents’ things that hadn’t been sold off. Lots of old letters to my Great Aunt as she was growing up, the earliest one being from 1928 but most from the mid to late 1930s. I’ve kept all of this stuff for years thinking for some reason I was the guardian of it because nobody else would be and it was family history.
I’ve been thinking about all of this quite a bit in the year since my Mom had to go into 24x7 care and I came to the conclusion that it’s not my responsibility anymore. If their son didn’t want the stuff why should I be the one looking after it? It wasn’t my parents. It wasn’t my life, not even remotely. It was time to let it all go. So what do you do with a bunch of personal correspondence?
I felt that I at least owed my Great Aunt and Uncle the respect of handling their things with dignity. These were very personal things of people who were very important to my Mom. It didn’t feel right to throw it all in the garbage. I burned it all. I had a bit of a ritual and sent the words written long ago back to the people long gone who wrote them. It felt right to me and I think they would have appreciated the decision.
The next thing to figure out is what I’m going to do with my Great Uncle’s dog tags and medals from when he was in the Army in World War 2. Throwing them out isn’t the right thing. I’ve considered bringing them to his gravesite and burying them next to him. It seems right, and respectful, to return them to him.