Friday morning, I headed to the airport to catch a flight to Gulfport, MS to meet my Mom, and help her finish up some loose ends. We both arrived in Gulfport around 2 in the afternoon, rented a car, and made our way to Hattiesburg. First we stopped at the bank to get a statement for Papa's account, and then we headed out to my Aunt Doris's house. She is my Grandmother's (Papa's wife) sister, or my great Aunt. Out of 8 siblings, only she and her baby sister Suzy remain. Anyway, we hung out and chatted with her for about an hour before going to the Garden Hilton Inn to get a room for the weekend. No way were we staying in Papa's house, it would have been too weird and creepy. We grabbed some dinner from Newk's, put on pj's, and watched reality tv until we fell asleep. I'm pretty sure we were out before 9 p.m.
Saturday, after we had breakfast, we headed over to Papa's house to clean out everything because the house has been sold, and we sold most everything in it too. A local family is buying it, and their 2 adult sons are going to live in it. So whatever they can't use, they're just going to donate, which is great because that takes care of the need to have an Estate sale. My Mom and I had everything cleaned up and cleaned out in about 3 hours. We've all been slowing doing it now for 6 months, so it made for an easy job. It got hard though when I had to take his clothes out of the closet, and put them in giant trash bags for donation. It felt like I was throwing him away... I know this isn't the case, but it still didn't feel good one bit. At 12:30 we got some lunch, and headed back to the hotel to take a break for a bit. William Hickman, the man who bought Papa's house, also recommended a guy who might be interested in buying Papa's car which was spectacular because that was the other big thing we really needed to take care of. We met him back at Papa's house around 4, he looked at the car all of 10 minutes, and then offered $2500. SOLD! The last big thing was taken care of, and I could feel the stress leaving my Mom in waves. Once paperwork was signed, we closed up the house and headed over to pick up Aunt Doris for dinner. We went to O'Charley's, and had a really lovely time. My Aunt reminds me so much of my Grandmother, and on top of that she is hilarious, and we spent most of dinner laughing. It.felt.good.
Sunday morning, after breakfast, we stopped by Papa's church to drop off some checks that people had sent for the scholarship fund, before picking up Aunt Doris and going to church with her. Before leaving for church, she gave me the vintage linen napkins I had been salivating over the night before plus 2 more sets. I love her so much. Anyway, after church, we had lunch at Mac's Fish Camp. I know it sounds sketch, but it is delicious! They have a buffet on Sunday's, and a dessert cart that is to die for. So what I'm saying is, lunch was WONDERFUL! After we dropped Aunt Doris back at her house, we had to go by Papa's one more time to put out all the trash, do one final walk through, and then say good-bye. I took a birdhouse that Bella had painted for him, and put it up in a tree on the trail in his backyard that I have walked since I was a kiddo. When I walked back to the front of the house I noticed 2 orange butterflies following me. They then stopped and hung out on this huge bush full of pink and orange flowers in the front flower bed of Papa's house. I took one final walk around the house, and they followed me until I got back up to the front where they went back to the colorful bush. It reminded me that my Grandparents are together again, happy, and that they will always watch over me.
We then stopped by my Aunt's one last time to drop off a few things for storage for the time being. It was an early night because we had to get up at 3 a.m. to drive to Gulfport to catch our 6 a.m. flights. I had a great weekend with my Mom, one I desperately needed, and it was hard to say good-bye at the airport. She leaves for Africa next Monday to go to Kenya and Tanzania with her friend Linda and a group from Georgia Tech, and now she can truely enjoy her trip knowing everything has been taken care of.
I got home around 1, took a shower, and then watched last week's Project Runway episode. Now I think it's time for a cup of coffee before I head to pick up my B-bo from school, which I'm excited about because I missed my little kiddo biddido <3
xoxox
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