Arrivederci, Amici Miei

I was dreading this day.  The estate sale for my mom's stuff was happening at the same time that Alma's sale was going on.  I knew the day was closing in but it was this evening we had to say our goodbyes.  Without Alma's encouragement, I would never had taken a single bird photograph.  Without her encouragement I never would have been interested in any kind of (semi) serious photography.  She was my mentor and closest of friends.

We went back to her house one last time and she gave me two of her photographs.  She also let me have my pick of any number of really old first edition books.  I might go back tomorrow when her sale winds up and pick up a few more.  No one sees value in things, like those 1909 first editions. Or her award winning photography, still unsold. When I saw that I truly wanted to cry.  She won't be there.  She stopped at our house first to say goodbye to mom.  I met her originally through my mother since my first acquaintances when I arrived in Arizona were my mother's friends.  When we went to her house we had our private moment with lots of tears.

She's moving clear across the country to Connecticut to live with her daughters.  Graham came up with a work-around for me to gift her a Blipfoto membership since she hasn't been on in a year.  I told her she had to keep her camera out because she had never lived on the east coast and everything she sees will be new and different.  It was also a bit of a selfish move because it could be a sure-fire way for us to keep in touch.

For posterity's sake, I threw in a couple of extras from mom's sale.  Things had pretty much been cleaned out when I arrived around 11:00 so there's not all that much to see.  All the big items went: living room furniture and a couple of bedroom sets.  There are just two antique pieces that will go to consignment.  Tomorrow the photographer comes to take the shots for the listing and Saturday the house officially will be for sale.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if it sold before I took off on Wednesday?  Not likely, but not impossible, either.

Bedtime.