Life, Interrupted

The title of the post today would seem to apply to my life, and it does, but it is meant more in reference to my mother's life at the moment.
When my mother left the lodge in July I am sure that she had no idea that she would not be going back there once her hospital stay was complete. She had no time to sort through her things, they are just the way they were when the ambulance picked her up. I think most of us would feel pretty vulnerable to have others go through our things without having had a chance to go through them ourselves first.
I found myself feeling a little like an anthropologist as we went through the room. The things that were given places of prominence showed what was important to her or possibly what she wanted others to see as important to her, but it was the things that were tucked away that she may not have thought others would see that gave me the most insight into her and her world.
I began to see a pattern regarding any jewelry I found, it was never found alone but usually there were a few wrapped hard candies and at least one safety pin or paperclip in the same container. This made me smile as I began to be able to predict these items found together. Mom has a sweet tooth and much of her jewelry are favorite pieces but are missing clasps or fastenings.
As we tried to organize her belongings Ev, Jane and I would create broad categories to place things in like fasteners, this category was really stretched when a glue stick and a roll of scotch tape were added to it as well as all the many loose buttons we found.
Another common theme I found was that Mom liked to write down inspirational quotes, songs and stories and also had many of her own musings and insights scribbled down, often on odd scraps of paper and found throughout the room, tucked into desk drawers and hidden away with old bills and statements in the closet. Most were around the theme of being strong in the midst of trials and finding the source of strength, something that my Mom has had a lot of schooling in. In a way, I felt that maybe she had tucked them away with the thought that she would share them with me or others one day, which in a way is what just occurred.
Today is a day off from packing before getting back to it tomorrow. We made a lot of progress yesterday, I'm sure the others would smile at the 'we' part as it was a bit more of a sentimental journey for me and their efforts produced far more visible results than mine.

Take care, everyone.