Detaching from Spencerport

This space is missing Uncle Bill & loud classic rock music.

Dave & I spent the last five days moving our Aunt Betty to Maryland from the Rochester, NY area. Packing, panicking, breathing, working, taping, wrapping, laughing together, eating an amazing lasagne that Barb & Dick brought over, and delighting in crispy lemon cookies from Leo’s that Patty brought to share.

Aunt Betty & Uncle Bill loved their 5 bedroom Victorian home along the Erie Canal and filled it with beautiful and interesting collections: toy banks, music boxes, art glass, Stickley furniture. When Uncle Bill died on March 30th, 2019, we all knew Aunt Betty would want to relocate somewhere warmer. It’s just so much house to take care of - especially in the winter.

Before we drove the truck & Aunt Betty & her pooch Lacey to Maryland, I stood alone in the garage. The smell of oil reminded me of Uncle Bill, who I loved like a father, and I cried an angry cry. How dare he die! The pain washed over me, the pain of being attached and demanding that the attachment last forever just as it did before he died.

I looked at the work bench, smelled the oil, and decided I would detach my love for Uncle Bill from that space and take it home with me. I would detach from that house and set it free for others, set myself free, and feel grateful for the warmth and hospitality it provided me over the last 25 years. Grateful for the home base, the attachment to a place and a family that laughed with me and cried with me and loved me.

Before I “detached”, I stuffed a shoe box full of cool looking hand tools and set Uncle Bill’s Dickies work coveralls on top. I collected just enough attachment objects to detach and get myself out of the garage and on the road to Aunt Betty’s lovely new home in Frederick.

He would be so happy to see her settled in to her lovely new place. He would be so proud of her for this new adventure.