Ten years ago, when my mother was in the throes of dementia, I left New York, bought a home in North Carolina near my brother, and moved her in with me.
Mama Jo, as she was known, was a hoarder who had been living in Virginia with a collection of more than 700 dolls that she referred to as her “little people.” So I turned the largest space in the house into the doll room: 400 square feet of floor-to-ceiling dolls that rendered most visitors speechless.
After she died, a friend assured me that I’d get through the process of “liberating” those little people the same way I got through my mother’s harrowing decline.
If pickers saw the massive doll collection Jo Maeder inherited from her mother, they would certainly have a field day going over them. A room in her house in North Carolina is home to more than 700 dolls, among the oldest made during the Civil War. For a time, Maeder lost interest in them, but got fond of them again when her mother died seven years ago. Too bad the pickers won’t have much luck getting her to sell even one doll; she didn’t want to let them go.
For collectors, it’s an impressive assortment, but it comes at the expense of 400 square feet of space in her home. When the recession hit, Maeder was forced to sell her collection after a bit of guidance from the stars and ‘supernaturals’. Perhaps, it’s for the best; she had clung onto grief for far too long. She hopes that the 400-square-foot room would house someone she can talk to instead of stare at her blankly all day.
Emotional attachment to inheritances is often portrayed as a symptom of grief. It may take months for the person to finally get over his grief. In Maeder’s case, she held onto the dolls for years before deciding to finally let go. Self storage in Queens can help manage this grief by providing space for antique items and inherited assets for as long as their clients need them. Holding onto grief for a longer period than is necessary, however, isn’t good.
At some point, you’ll need to deal with the things your late loved ones left behind. Not only will it let grief persist longer but also incur greater expense in terms of storage. Services for self storage in Queens such as Gibraltar Self Storage only provide a temporary “outlet.” In the end, it’s up to you to move on or stay with the past.
[From: The 700-Doll Question, The New York Times, May 8, 2013]
Other sources:.sparefoot.com/4308-how-to-deal-with-an-inheritance/