Possessed by the Things We Possess

by Laura Leist

Liv Fun: Vol 2 – Issue 1

“You can’t take it with you when you go.”

My mom lived by those nine words and repeated them often; I didn’t understand their full meaning until September 23, 1984.

My parents divorced when I was five, and my brother Scott and I lived with my mother until I was 14 and she could no longer care for us. Mom had always taught piano lessons from our home, and no matter where she was in the house, her purse was always by her side: at the piano, by her bed, next to the stool she sat on in the kitchen, or next to the recliner in the living room.

On the morning of her passing, my dad drove Scott and me to her home to meet with our grandparents. As I wandered aimlessly through my childhood home, my Grandma said to me, “Take anything you want … it’s all yours.” Walking past the recliner where my mom last laid, I saw her purse and suddenly understood the meaning of her favorite saying. At that moment, there wasn’t any “thing” I wanted; what I wanted, and could never have again, was my mom.

So it was, at the tender age of 16, I got a crash course in downsizing a home as we held an estate sale.  There were so many questions to be answered and even more decisions to be made. How do you decide what to keep? How do you let go of the rest without feeling guilty? Simple questions but, as I found out, very hard to answer. Making decisions about the “stuff” in your life is mentally and emotionally exhausting. I was grateful I didn’t have to do it alone. Little did I know that this process (and it is a process) would lead me later in life to start a company to help people downsize their treasures, and do so with compassion and understanding.

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Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Spring 2013
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Possessed by the Things We Possess
by Laura Leist

“You can’t take it with you when you go.” My mom lived by those nine words and repeated them often; I didn’t understand their full meaning until September 23, 1984.
Read More

Mother May I … In Reverse
by Sue Peterson, CFA

Having a conversation with your kids can help you go about spending “their inheritance,” without the guilt. Permission. Authorization. Consent. Each of these words implies that, before taking action or making a decision, a higher power of some sort is involved and needs to be sought out and consulted.
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Chanting Into Halawa
by Pam Mandel

Gaining access into this heaven on earth requires more than good intentions. We were stopped in the middle of a narrow, winding road by a vehicle coming the other way. The big guy behind the wheel rolled down his window.
Read More