the empty house

on sat cousin ME & i went to nana's house to pick up a few things for her. the lady at the cancer place told me we should go get nana's favorite items from home, bring what we could to make her comfortable in her new surroundings.

it was kind of weird, ME & i have only recently reacquainted, prior to this we've hardly seen each other in 20 years, but we picked up like nothing. it was nice, like old best friends, we caught up on so much personal & family stuff.

when we got to nana's we walked the backyard, so many memories back there: all the parties over so many years, the lemon tree my uncle ralph planted a few years ago before he died, the fig tree that i [tried to] cut steps in so my dog Bobo could climb the tree with me, the pomegranate bushes & the chinchi bugs making noise, the sheds with who knows what in them.

i took pictures of everything. we walked through the bathroom finding items from our childhood still in there. in nana's bedroom we gathered a few items to take with us. in the kitchen we opened the cabinetry & drawers, i took a picture of nana's silverware. in the living room we gathered a few other decor items & found some old albums. ones i had never seen before, very old, all the kids are children & even pics of my grandpa. i found out he was in the military, he went to okinawa. there was even a pic of him & on the side it said "kadena air station" - i've been there!

we picked out clothes for nana, a couple pairs of slippers, her pillow, an afghan my mom made for her, a plastic flower arrangement she likes. things to hopefully make her happy, or something in the arena of happy i guess would be a better choice of words.

it was weird to be in that house & know nana wasn't coming back, heartbreaking actually.