empying house

over the weekend diana and i made plans to go and help her mom and step-dad. the house diana used to live in was put up for sale- and sold in one day! nice! well, they needed a little bit of help with cleaning the place up for the new owners to move it. diana and i didn't have any other plans and were happy to stop by and help.
we arrived saturday morning (later than we expected, but what can you do?) and quickly got to work! they had a big trash container in the driveway, so all we needed to do was fill it up! we got right to work and started clearing out the basement. there was a ton of stuff down there, much of it was from when diana and her sister were growing up. after a pizza lunch break, we put in another hour or two. the new owners were actually there too taking care of the lawn and a few other things. as we were going through all the stuff to throw out, they actually wanted to keep a lot of it! mostly it was old dressers and tables and furniture. apparently the new owner loves to refinish stuff and is a wiz at woodwork, so a bunch of stuff that we were going to trash actually stayed in the basement. we didn't care- it meant less work for us!
(more pics)
afterward we packed up to go and spend some time at diana's mom and step-dad's place. as we were getting into the car, the impact of the day hit diana: this was going to be the last time she would ever be at this house. this is the house she grew up in- so many memories! as that reality started to sink in she had to take a couple minutes. her mom sat with her and they spent a few minutes coming to terms with the change that was taking place, a sort of loss in some ways. i have never had to deal with that, my parents are still living in the house i grew up in. i'm not sure how i would handle it. but it is certainly something that deserves a moment of reflection and a realization of what is passing. every once in a while you just have to take stock and realize the changes that happen, both good and bad. as diana enters a new part of her life, a life with me, she still must celebrate what came before and appreciate the changes. it helped me remember this important truth as well.