Clean House

Today, I stopped by the rental property that my husband and I own with another couple that our friends, the nuns, lived in. Two sisters from their order were cleaning out the last of the things left there.

It's been three months since Sister R passed away. Since then, Sister C has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimers and will now be living at the mother house (which we affectionately call the mothership!) for the order. Sister C was at the house last week with another Sister to pack her personal belongings. Sister R's family came shortly after the funeral to go through her personal things that they would be taking with them. So now, the house contains furniture and lots of odds and ends that will either be taken by other Sisters for their residences, or taken to the mothership to a building that the Sisters call "the ark" where all the extra furniture and household items are stored and then used when needed or, finally, things to be pitched.

It was sad to be there and see the house in disarray as it is ready to be emptied. It was such a short time ago that they were moving in. It is hard to believe that they moved in the middle of August, Sister R got sick the end of September and passed away in October and here it is, the middle of January and we will be looking for new tenants. We were so looking forward to spending time with "the Sisters" who had become such special friends to all of us. And now, we are coming to the final chapters of that part of our lives as one is gone physically and one is going mentally. We will visit Sister C as she is less than an hour away and take her out for ice cream - her one and only vice.

Normally, a clean house is something that I look forward to. In this case, I would rather the house be filled and messy with the Sisters there.