Sorry to leave everyone hanging for so long, but I just haven't had too much time at all to write since my last post. I think where I left off I had just put up our Christmas tree, so I guess I'll begin again from there.
After the tree had gone up and I had worked a few days, we set out on a trip to Nashville. As I think I mentioned already, we had planned on making a trip out there in order to go through some of Sharon's stuff. So, we decided to leave on Tuesday afternoon and set out right after the morning rush hour. We got directions from one of Sharon's friends in Nashville, but most of the driving was just on I-40. My brother Ryan did all the driving, and as we got into Nashville, we realized we were going the wrong way! The directions had told us to take a right, but what we were supposed to do was take a left! She had given us the directions from her house, which was in the opposite direction down the highway. So, once we were reoriented, we arrived at the apartment complex and found her unit.
As we walked in, we were surprised at what we saw: books, books, and more books!! Now we were expecting to see many hundreds of books throughout the apartment, but we hadn't expected seeing thousands of books there! There were books stacked behind the couch, going up the stairs, in piles in the bedrooms, and on the bookshelves that filled bedrooms, the living room, the dining room, and the family room. Suffice it to say that the books runneth over! And all types of books, too, including mystery, fiction, religious, biographies, historical, inspirational, and many other types too. We were all astounded by the sheer volume of books, but then, that was something unique about Sharon.
We had only been there for an hour or so when Judy, Sharon's friend in Nashville, came over to meet us. She is a very nice and courteous woman who is, I would say, around Sharon's age, and she explained everything about the estate and the apartment. She also discussed the beautiful memorial service held early in December and how so many people showed up to remember Sharon. I was very glad to hear that, and yet, somewhat disappointed that I wasn't able to attend. Thankfully, though, Judy saved a few programs and prayer cards from the service just for us, since we knew ahead of time that we wouldn't be able to attend. It sounded like a very nice service, and a very worthy sendoff of a remarkable person.
After we met with Judy for a couple of hours, we decided to explore around Nashville a little bit before we started going through the stuff. After all, we didn't want our entire trip to be stressful and all hard work, even though that was pretty much the entire purpose of the trip. Anyways, I suggested that we visit the Opryland Hotel, since I had been there several times and remembered how they really went "all out" decorating for Christmas. So, we got directions from Judy and got there in about 45 minutes, which I think was pretty good time considering we were in rush hour traffic. We decided, upon my suggestion, to park across the street from the hotel, since their prices for parking are unbelievably high, as I recall. It was somewhat cold that night, so we walked at a very brisk pace and made it inside.
Now, I don't know if any of you have been inside that hotel, but let me tell you, it sure is a sight to see! The entire complex is indoors, with five different guest room sections, several restaurants, shops, business meeting rooms, and even a large water feature running through the place. It looked almost like a forest in there, with tall trees and plants and flowers everywhere. But, in addition to all of this, add in all the Christmas lights, giant balloons hanging from the ceiling, Christmas trees, ribbons, life-sized figurines, and anything else you could possibly think of. We walked around a little bit looking at the wonders around us, but eventually got hungry and got some personal Pizza Hut pizzas from the Food Court. Lo and behold, while we were eating, the water fountain in the center of the place started up and Christmas music started echoing from the giant speakers. (You see, a couple times a night, no matter what the season, they do a water show from the giant fountain that features music, lights, and of course water.) This one was spectacular, and it really was a good show.
After we finished eating, we walked around just a little bit more and checked out a few of the other venues. But by the time we were finished doing that, it had gotten fairly late, and we decided to head back to the apartment. It was around 10:00 PM Central Time when we got back, and we were all exhausted from our travels. So, without thinking of really anything else, we just all decided to go to bed. We had to be up bright and early in order to get everything done that we wanted to do.
Once we woke up around 7:00 AM, we went over to rent a U-Haul so we could transport some of the furniture, etc. back to Powell with us. (Now before I go any further, I guess it would be good to mention that Judy gave us her Nissan Pathfinder during our meeting. She decided to keep Sharon's car, since she is in fact the co-executor of the estate, and decided that we could have her SUV. So, if you were wondering, that's how we were going to tote a U-Haul trailer.) So we went and picked that up from the local U-Haul place and got it all hooked up and toted it back to the apartment. When we did get back we had to decide what we wanted to take back as far as furniture. My mom finally decided to bring her couch, queen size bed (which would replace my parents' bed), day bed/couch (which would replace my old bed), clothes dryer, and an end table of sorts that had drawers and a sort of cabinet that she kept wine in. All of these items (except for the dryer, which went into the back of the SUV) fit into the U-Haul trailer, after repacking it several times.
After all the large items were packed up, we started going through some of the smaller stuff, such as knick knacks that were around the house. I brought a few Patricia Cornwell novels with me and my mom looked through some stuff in her bedroom, which included the actual bouquet Sharon carried in my parents wedding, and the bridesmaid's dress she wore! We also brought a few paintings, a horse clock and a horse painting (which we gave to Greg and Janie's niece, who is very much into horses), a few kitchen items, some board games, a couple of Christmas ornaments and decorations, and a few other items that we found. One batch of items that we found very interesting were some buttons with inspirational sayings on them. There was a bag with some in it, but then in random places around the house, like on the kitchen cabinets, on the refrigerator, and on the book shelves, a few of the best ones could be found. My mom thought that they were just oh so cool, and it really was neat that she left inspirational messages around the house.
So, after looking around a few more times and picking up any other items we found, we loaded up the cars and began to head out. I found leaving the place to be very emotional, since that would probably be the last time I'd see Sharon's place and all those memories of her. But, we had to leave, and I needed to drive the car back, since my brother would drive the Pathfinder and my mom would have to be with him (because he only has a learners permit). So, we headed out after saying a final goodbye, and we were on the road.
We got back home really late on Wednesday, and since it was so late, we decided to just wait until Thursday to unload the cars and the U-Haul. The U-Haul had to be returned by Friday, so we had plenty of time. Part of me was glad to be home, but then another part of me was sad to leave. But, I have tons of memories to remind me of the good times we had with Sharon, so she will never really be gone.
Well, this has turned out to be quite longer than I had originally intended, so I'll have to write another post or two about my Christmas Break. I also will have a post about my first days of classes, since I started back just yesterday. Until then, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and that 2006 will indeed be a very Happy New Year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment