the secrets of a lifetime

three years ago my beloved grandmother passed away.
bomma was a wonderful woman: she cared about her children, loved her grandchildren deeply and welcomed everybody in her house.
a strong loving mother you can rely on: you need someone to talk to, she listens; you need someone to chat with, she’s there, coffee and 20 different kinds of cookies included.
she’s always considerate about others, never about herself.

but bomma also had a thing for collecting stuff

or actually a fear for throwing things away

in the past three years, more than once we came across… euhm… let’s call it phenomena.

she did warn us… but still…

- EVERY drawer, shell, container… had a piece of paper in it “for protection”. Btw, we’re not talking about a uniform kind of cover, we’re talking à l’improviste: pieces of wrapping paper (not new paper, but wrapping paper from a former present), envelops (A4 size, always useable for something), pieces of wall paper (no idea where they come from, she never had this kind of wall paper), pages of a calendar (going back 40 years), pieces of toile cirée (the covers of a dining table, from 30 to 50 years ago… my personal favourite: a 90’s motive black and white dots with bright coloured triangles on the shelves of an antique cabinet)

- in the same category: EVERY closet has a little curtain in the back “for protection” (red with flowers, white with roses and… my personal favourite: baby pink with pastel butterflies in the back of that same antique cabinet)

oh boy…

- talking about calendars: not only did we find them on the bottom of the drawers; the drawers, spread throughout the house of course, were more than often filled with old calendars… kept for “the pretty pictures”…

- but what to do with those pretty pictures? … ehm… keep ‘em in the drawers; they might come in handy… for what? NO IDEA

ah wait, we did find one frame on the wall with a “pretty picture”

oh god…

- let’s go to the lace (I’m talking about little cloths aka lappekes)…

first of all, imagine a collection of statuettes (aka postuurke) with an average of 10 per m²

well, EVERY postuurke has a lappeke… every vase has a lappeke, every table has a lappeke, 

every window sill has a lappeke, every chimney pieces has lappekes, every sofa has a lappeke on top…

so one window sill probably has about 8 lappekes: a bigger one along the window, one under each postuurke and vase (there are 5), and 2 of the vases were placed on a plate (with lappeke)

you do the math for the amount of lappekes

ah yes… forgot… there was one on top of tv…

- btw, about those postuurkes, don’t throw them away when there broken… no no paste the pieces back together… it’s too pretty

oh boy…

- also, don’t be startled of the separation of a teapot (on a kitchen shelve) and its lid (in the basement)

still wondering how but whatever

- let’s go to the garage… or maybe not

grandpa's domain, secretly a degree worse: nails, rivets, bolts, hammers, saws, … equipment for an entire army; shovels, pitchforks, rakes, … for an entire farmer’s community; sometimes a little treasure… original roller-skates for example

and loads and loads of toys…

toys?

grandpa's toys?

oh no… they were mine… oops

haa… the secrets of bomma’s lifetime…

we still love her deeply