memories...

I will presume to say that most of us have been in the painful place of needing to deal with family estates! Some years ago my hubby and his sibblings spent the painful hours and days sorting thru the belongings of their parents (my in-laws). Adding to the stress of the situation was the knowledge that one of the group felt that hubby had not earned the right to claim or ask for any of the family items and this was made known to many. But hubby still faithfully spent the time to help with the sorting and remained silent with the decision making, afterall his thoughts were not welcomed anyway!

One item in particular was discovered tucked away in the upstairs of the garage, it was a sled to pull firewood from the *woodland* for the fireplace of the ancestors. The last that hubby knew it had been his Grandpa that had the sled. Hubby said if there was just one item he could claim from the family items it would be the sled. My goal was to purchase at the estate sale *the sled* for my hubby, he asks for so little! The price of the bid went much higher then I ever expected, but I was determined...and yes a sibbling family member of my hubby did bid against me, but I WAS DETERMINED!! Here you see the sled!

(because it is designed to haul wood from the woodland it has an open top, a long handle for pulling, and sled runners)

(hubby added a slatted wood top, finished beautifully and it is now our coffee table)

(another view of the coffee table, it is very special in many ways, for hubby because of its history, for me because hubby has again been very creative with wood from the house that we lost)


It is *our* desire that our adult children never need to experience or feel the pain of the sibbling difficulties as experienced by hubby. We have started sharing items with our adult children, and hopefully our *estate will* allows our children and grandchildren to know ~ what is ours is theirs!