Stuff that makes me mad

     Background:  When I was about 21, my mother decided to move from Galveston to Victoria, get an apartment, and take a new job in dang near the middle of the summer.  I was home on summer break from college, but the timing of how I was going to get my stuff from Galveston back to my furnished student apartment in San Marcos did not concern her.  Nor how I was going to live in a totally empty house by myself until time to return to college.  She just loaded up her stuff and said bye, in the middle of a hurricane, no less.  Mind you, I did not even have a car.  (and back then, no one had computers or cell phones)  I did, however, have Mark, who would also be returning to Texas State.  I had to leave or toss most of my belongings - it could not all come with me, and Mom wasn't going to move or store it for me.  Same for my cat, which I had to abandon in Galveston.  When Mark's mother got wind of my situation, she was appalled.  She insisted I stay on their fold out couch in her back bedroom. This was for about 2 weeks, at the end of which Mark borrowed his boss's old work van and we loaded it and hit the road, ending our last summer ever in Galveston. 

     Now:  Wanting to do this differently, I have stored all of my kids' things for many years, in those big plastic bins, out in my garage.  I have reminded them to come look through them, to see what they wanted to keep or toss.  (friend, my "kids" are in their 30's)  Lovingly stored are their yearbooks, uniforms, karate belts, summer reading totes, baby teeth, toys, pre-K art, and other mementos of their childhoods, not mine. And you know - I kind of feel over it at this point, but I wanted to be respectful of their right to their stuff.  I get that they might not have the emotional capacity to deal with it.  But can we talk about my struggles these last 4.5 years as a full-time working woman and widow who is nearing retirement and was left with our clutter and possessions to deal with alone?  I don't think my mom had that same journey, though I can appreciate that she was arranging things by herself, as well.   But am I just a storage unit?  I have a lot of guilt over this - maybe I burdened my peeps with too much stuff.

The situation I created  kind of pisses me off.