To Give is to Receive

The past month, Mom kept bringing up the fact that she had so many pretty coats and dresses, etc. that were taking up space in the closet and she hadn’t worn them in years. She wanted to sell them in a garage sale. Sis and I told her it wasn’t feasible to have a garage sale as we live out in the country and would get very few people stopping by. We told her we’d be glad to take them and donate them to the Salvation Army.

“No way! I’m not giving my pretty clothes to some one who doesn’t deserve them! You know how those Salvation Army stores are. They sell to anybody and some drunken, drugged up woman will get them.”

“Mom, the Salvation Army store is for the poor so they can buy clothes they need at very cheap prices. There are many poor people who need them.”

“No, that’s what they say but it doesn’t really happen that way. The slobs of society buy there the most.”

Sis and I decided to close that subject before we let out our anger at Mom’s words. Mom is very prejudiced and believed her clothes wouldn’t go to the ’right’ people. A couple weeks ago, I called the local women’s shelter and asked if they accepted donations of clothing. The woman I talked to was thrilled. She said they get so few donations as most people donate to Salvation Army, Goodwill and the more well-known places like that. She told me the address of the drop-off place where we could take the clothes and thanked me for thinking of them.

Sis dug into her closet and bagged up 6 large trash bags full of clothing and shoes. They filled the back seat of my car. I had very little to donate as I'd sold/donated everything before I'd moved here. We went into the house and talked to Mom about donating her items and she liked the idea of donating to the women’s shelter. She deemed them ‘worthy’ of the clothing. She went through her closets, drawers, and boxes of stored clothing, shoes, and purses. We bagged and boxed all of it and took it out to the car. Mom’s items filled the trunk and the back floor of the car. Sis held onto 2 boxes in her lap for the trip to the drop-off.

We arrived to the drop-off and was greeted by a lovely woman who was so excited to see us. I opened the trunk and the back doors of the car and her eyes grew huge in the wondrous sight before her! She was ecstatic and stated they had never received such a generous donation before. This donation would clothe many, many women in their time of need. Mom’s dressy items would be wonderful for some woman trying to find a job. She would look very nice for an interview.

She hugged us profusely and had the most wonderful smile on her face and a few tears in her eyes. We drove off with tears in our eyes. What a wonderful feeling!

Please donate what you can to those in need. You’ll give someone something that is badly needed and you will receive such gratitude. It will make your heart full.

Waste Not--Want Not

Thanksgiving was a hectic yet wonderful family day as I hope everyone’s was. It was the first Thanksgiving I’d celebrated with my family in years. I was always working at the retirement home and I worked the holidays so I could be with the residents. Hence, I haven’t cooked a big meal in a long, long time. Brother N did a lot of the cooking with me. I was totally exhausted by the time it was all over.

When it came time to clean up the kitchen and divide up all the leftovers, the guys went into the living room and watched football--of course--and Sis, Mom, and I started in. Sis divided up the side dishes and I divided up the meats and desserts.  We removed the foil off of the meats and other dishes that we put it over to keep food warm and laid it aside.

Sis glanced over to see Mom at the sink washing off all the used foil. She was washing it to re-use it! Sis told her that was not necessary, foil is cheap and to just throw it away! Mom wouldn’t hear of it so we just left her alone and let her wash the foil.

I got out the box of plastic storage bags to divide some dinner rolls into and found several used bags stuffed into the top of the box. Some of them still had old dried food particles in them. Sis and I looked at each other in horror! Jeez, Mom could get food poisoning using these! I had never noticed it in the time I’d been here. We went through the cabinet and found used foil folded up and found old food particles on some of those.

Right then, Mom was trying to find a small bowl to put the leftover corn in--all 2 tablespoons of it. We told her to just throw it away, it wasn’t enough for anyone for a meal. She threw a fit saying she wasn’t gonna do it. So, instead, she ate the rest of the corn which was fine. I scraped the leftover mashed potatoes into a storage bowl except for the burned bits that stuck to the bottom of the pan. I tool the pan over to the trashcan to scrape it in there and Mom got in an uproar again. I just acted like I didn’t hear her.

Next thing we know, Mom is washing the Chinet paper plates we’d eaten on! That did it! Sis threw her hands up in the air and took Mom into the living room and gave her a puzzle book to work on. We had to get her out of the kitchen so we could go through everything and see what else she was hoarding.

We didn’t find anything and we threw away the ‘washed’ foil (still having food particles on them), we threw away all plastic storage bags that had been used, then we cleaned out the fridge of food she’d kept in there for 2 weeks. I knew the food had been in there and every time I’d try to throw it out, Mom would fight with me. So everyday I would take out the food and smell it to see if it was still good hopefully to keep Mom from being poisoned. Sis and I took this opportunity to get rid of everything. We made sure family members got the majority of the Thanksgiving leftovers. If it was too much for us, Mom would have had us eating it for a month or until it spoiled--whichever came first.

Now I make it a daily habit to check the food, the foil/storage bags, and the paper plates. I throw them away when I find any that have been used. Mom hasn’t missed any of it so far!