You may remember Dear Reader that my lovely friend June died before Christmas. Well, last weekend TG and I went up to her house in Nottingham because she had made me one of the beneficiaries in her will and her executor had asked me if I would help her to go through June’s things.
This is one of the most awful things that I have had to do. I felt almost like a burglar in her house going through drawers and cupboards. Deciding what to keep, what to donate to charity and what to bin, rifling through her personal belongings, collected over nearly 80 years. It made me sad and immensely flattered to find letters and cards that I had written her years ago and to see all of the cushions, quilts and other bits and pieces that I had made her, not shoved into cupboards or drawers, but on show.
We laughed together (her friend of 50 years and I) as we remembered all the outfits that we removed from 4 wardrobes – some of which dated back 30 years or more and tried on her mink coat just to see what it felt like. We bagged up about 20 bags of clothes, shoes and handbags, found at least 200 lipsticks and 50 different nail varnishes and an enormous amount of costume jewellery. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s astonishing to see a lifetime’s worth of stuff. Things that have been collected, hoarded, loved and looked after for nearly twice as long as I’ve been here for. I like to think that we cleared with empathy and respect. TG was brilliant when I showed him the pile of things that I wanted to take home. He didn’t bat an eyelid at the 20 or so cushions that June had made so beautifully, or the watercolours she painted (of which there were many) that were put into the car. He didn’t question the half-dozen hand-made pincushions, the two quilts made by June’s Mum or just the stuff that reminds me of her. He understood.
Our house now smells of June and is home to her cushions and pictures and very at home they look too. I would have been so upset if these things had just been binned and was so glad to have been there for part of the clearance. We have to go back again. This time to clear her ‘studio’ which is home to more wool, embroidery threads, sequins and beads that I have ever seen outside of a haberdashery department. I am hoping to donate it to a school or sewing group or somebody who will appreciate and use it.
June left me a brilliant legacy of some of the most creative things I could own. She was a clever bugger on the quiet and I think she knew that her things would be safe with me. I still go to phone her on a Sunday and have to stop myself.
Miss you Juney.
