70. Judy’s Stuff

Nora loves to seek out an estate sale and demand to know the entire life story of the person who died. This inevitably leads to some tender tears, but she loves these chance encounters and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

I’m Nora McInerny, and it’s going to be okay.

And also…I can ruin anything.

I mean anything. Mostly because if I am in too tender of a mood, and the right circumstances hit me? I will just cry. Obviously I should not, then, go to estate sales. But I love them. I love to walk into a person’s home and surround myself with the things that another person loved or at least liked enough to collect and maintain. 

I think a lot about my future estate sale, which is NOT what I should be doing on this podcast because the promise in the title is that it’s going to be okay, not it’s going to be another emotional breakdown with Nora McInerny. But what will MY kids not want? Will my shelves and shelves of books be laid out on card tables in the sun and priced at $1 for harcovers and 50 cents for paperbacks? Will they see the sentimental value in my miniatures? Who among them will have the decency to burn my many journals?

I assume at estate sales that the person whose belongings I am pawing through is dead. And sometimes, when I’m surrounded by, say, a collection of antique spoons or wedding china that was only used twice a year, or a pile of sweaters that still have the tags on them, things that no surviving member of the family wanted, or valued, things that were once perhaps coveted items that are now priced to sell…I do get emotional. And then I start to ask questions like, who did this belong to? What did she like? Is he still alive? Can you tell them that I have no place to put this bowling ball but I admire how well he kept it, and I can tell from the collection of trophies that he practiced hard at his sport and I’m glad he was recognized for it in his lifetime?

And sometimes I get really interesting information, like:

Estate Sale Worker: And he was going to take, uh, he willed. His dog, cuz she was gonna take care of his, his dog if he passed away or whatever. He had it all arranged. 

Nora: What did the dog get in the will? 

Estate Sale Worker: It was just, just everything. Yeah. The dog got it all. 

That’s me at a recent estate sale, where I just had to know more about the woman whose collection of Department 56 Christmas Village Houses I was buying. The woman whose measuring cups would be in my kitchen. The woman whose servingware would be in my cabinets. Her name is Judy. And she’s not dead. But she’s in a dilemma. She can’t live here anymore, in this house she lived in with Charles and later, just his dog. And the woman I’m talking to isn’t just a random woman running the estate sale. She’s known her for years.

Nora: So you’re doing this for your sister-in-law?

Estate Sale Worker: Mm-hmm. So, you know, like you saw these things, like you we’re just doing it for her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she, she was kind of like in a dilemma, so I asked her what to do or whatever, so, and it was, you know, I didn’t want anybody to take advantage of her or whatever. Peggy’s helping out too. She’s a friend. And I used to live across the street. 

Nora: Oh, you did? 

Crosstalk: And Diane. Diane, you know, they come in and all a house. She, she drives the car just to keep it going. And because Judy, you know, for several years, Judy wasn’t here. No, Judy moved in July…

I don’t know Judy, I don’t know what any of these things meant to her, but I know that she took really good care of them and I know that they were a part of her life, her daily life. I imagine that every December I. She got down these Christmas houses, cleared off the various credenzas in the living room, and set up her little Christmas scene.

I imagine that at one point in time, this empty house was filled with people, people she wanted to serve food to on beautiful dishes and beautiful platters.

Judy moved in July, and now her house is filled with people like me picking over her stuff. But it’s also filled with her friends, who care about her. We are not our things, I know, but things can be very meaningful. This Christmas, when I light up my Christmas village with the new houses, I will think about Judy. She kept the original boxes and the catalog she ordered them from. Whenever I make the ONE thing I know how to bake – a gluten free cinnamon coffee cake – I think about Judy. The next time we have people over for dinner and I use the blue toile serving dishes I bought from her, I will think of Judy. These might be just things, but they were hers, and now they are ours, and they do mean something.

THEME MUSIC

I’m Nora McInerny and it’s going to be okay. The IT, as you may know, changes every day. So send us yours: attach a voice memo and email it to us at IGTBO at feelings and.co or call us at 612.568.4441. IGTBO is a production of your favorite independent podcasters at feelings & co. You can support this experiment by sharing it, rating and reviewing it, or listening to it, which you already did! Thank you. We appreciate you.

Nora: Do you guys take check card cash? What would you take? We take cash. Cash only? Yeah. All right, so this man’s gonna need to go to the cash machine for me. That’s all you need to know. All you need to know is this man will be returning later. Okay.