proteanme

My dad died in a house fire and he also horded stuff, including trash. Going in his house was kind of nightmare. The week my sister K and I came home to deal with everything, we went over to his house almost every day, but I only went in it twice. One of those times was with K. She stayed about 5 minutes before the horror of the whole thing got to her.

The other night I was thinking of the things I found when I went through his dresser drawers and his closet. I was thinking of what I didn’t find too.

Things I found:

• black and white photos of the girl he fell in love with when he was stationed in China after Japan surrendered in WW2
• three Indiana National Guard dog tags
• color photos of artillery guns, maybe howitzers
• notices from the IRS
• expired Life Insurance policies
• Indiana National Guard service medals and certificates
• A letter from his half brother written in 1973 telling him his dad had died
• His Marine Service Uniform which dates back to 1946
• His Indiana National Gaurd which dates back to the mid-80’s
• A photo of his dog
• A roll of film he had developed with lots of photos of horses in a corral, especially this one grayish white horse and a couple shots of some ducks
• A handful of books on sailing and building boats
• Medals from races he completed and some where he won his age group

Things I didn’t find:

• a wedding ring
• photos of me or my sister
• photos of his last wife or her kids
• bank statements
• extra car keys
• checkbook