Friday, January 26, 2007


Chronicles

Our individual stories are massive. It would take volumes to retell them. The amount of luck and fortitude it took between the first vibration in the primordial ooze to the moment where I sit in front of this computer eating a cookie is staggering. It is daunting to consider the impossibility of each individual alive today. It makes me think that I ought to treat myself to nice cookies.

I bought a house 8 years ago. It was in a neighborhood that was going from bad to worse but it was my first house and it was what I could afford. The house had been owned by an older woman who died and was then abandoned for sometime. When I moved in, there was very little remaining, in the shed, behind the house, was the usual clap-trap of unwanted, discarded items. An old sewing machine with foot peddles, beat up chairs, broken lamps and several boxes containing some possessions of the deceased woman. Inside the boxes were rosaries, bibles written in German, old black and white photographs, a diary and letters spanning many years.

These items should have been handed down to the next generation but I suspect there was no one left. The woman that had lived here was the end of her line. She was the last chapter of that family chronicle. As with any well written book, it is sad to reach the end but each story is written with the knowledge that it must, at some time, cease.

We should all remember to treat ourselves to nicer cookies.

17 comments:

Lucy said...

how sad that what was once important to someone, has no one to treasure it. We DEFINITELY should treat ourselves to the best damn cookies we can find.

tania said...

mmm...cookies. going to go rummage for ingredients now.

this was a lovely SS post. the ending of a chronicle is sad, but the certainty of it's end is part of what makes it so precious.
thanks for letting me glimpse into your blog.

Kay Cooke said...

Sad - there's seems to be a cyber-theme going right now about old photos - I keep reading about them in my wanders all over cyberspace. It's random, but interesting ... so sad about the woman's memories and treasures abandoned like that ... but then, it's not wasted cos you have blogged about it so she's probably getting more acknowledgment than she could have dreamed!

Alex S said...

Between you and Heter's Sunday Scribblings this week, I feel very sad! What is this urge or need in us to want to live on forever, or at least some part of us? To think of this random woman's life just somehow not mattering anymore, disappearing like dust, saddens me somehow. I want to think of her journals being cherished and honored by someone, a granddaughter or a niece, but I know thats not always possible.

Inconsequential said...

If you kept her diary...well, maybe you could post a bit up now and then...Then lots of people will not have forgotten the forgotten lil' ol' lady...


Great post btw :)

Another slice added to your ongoing chronicle...

alphawoman said...

So sad. My husband tells of when his step-grandmother died (his grandfather remarried and died before her) her children put the family photo's and other odds and ends that meant nothing to them on the street for trash. Thankfully, his sister drove by the house and found them! I hope you gave the pictures a new home.

Regina said...

But she did leave a legacy- she passed it on to you!
Yes, cookies are good.

Anonymous said...

What did you do with her treasures from the shed?

I can't think of a good solution.

JHS said...

Your post makes me sad. Someone should have those treasures & value them appropriately.

I have so many things that belonged to my parents. . . I cherish them and hope that my kids and their kids will, too. When I go to my sister's house and see the things she has that were my parents', that is comforting, as well.

gautami tripathy said...

A very sad account. How things are cherished by one has no value for anyone after her.

gautami
rooted.

Anonymous said...

I can imagine that somewhere, someone misses her and loved her. Someone visited her at that home. Or maybe she met someone there, like in Fried Green Tomatoes, and was special to someone all over again.

I think I need to go make cookies now. There are a few people I can treat to nicer cookies.

paris parfait said...

It's so sad that there was no one close to her remaining to want her precious items.

Waspgoddess said...

I can't help but think of the big question, you know, what is it all about? Why are we here? Is there a purpose to it all?

And of course there isn't, so we have to live in the moment, enjoy the best cookies, surround ourselves with the kindest people and really try to live life NOW.

Yet it breaks my heart to think of all these lives lived and then forgotten.

Great post.

gkgirl said...

i like the take you took on this,
that all chronicles end,
even if it did make me sad
to think that no wanted
what remained in the house...

mmm.
cookies.

Anonymous said...

Thoroughly enjoyed this tale, even though it's sad. Nice twist you used for the prompt!

Unknown said...

So far most of the Chronicles posts I've read have been about the gone and forgotten. And the prompt was about Narnia. Are we all feeling morbid? Winter getting too long.
Nice post. I'm going to get some cookies now.

Anonymous said...

My father, mother and brother all died before I was 30.
I have all their special things put away to pass on to my daughter.
Wishing you the biggest batch of the bestest cookies ever.