Malka's House -  Sold!

My Mom's and my childhood house of 5 decades finally sold in Brooklyn this past October. To say, it wasn't emotional would be a lie.  A year after my Mother's death, the weeks were filled with clearing out stuff and items my Mom had stashed in various corners and closets for the past 55 years.  I found doctor scripts from the Dr. Crohn from the 1960's, summer clothing from the '70's, my high school notebooks, pictures, letters in Polish and German, and artifacts saved from her years in Poland and in the concentration camps she was interred in.

After the emptying of what I could trash or donate, and the estate sale of tchatchkes and furniture, I let the neighbors in and they carted the rest of the stuff off. I removed all but the front door mezuzah.  Hired a carting company to place the dumpster in the driveway, and began hauling stuff into it. What a feeling of relief,  mixed with sadness, the end of an era. 

Finally, the house was emptied and the "For Sale" sign went up.  We had some solid offers and went to contract in early Spring.  Everything looked promising and then the deal went south. Back to the drawing board.  I felt Mom was holding on somewhere from wherever.  So when I went there every week, I'd beckon her to let go.  Miraculously, the original buyers came back and we finally closed.  

On closing day, I removed the front door mezuzah. Joy, my Mom's beloved aide and I said our goodbyes. I stood in my psychedelic wallpapered room and reminisced a bit about my days there listening to Elton John and Grand Funk Railroad with my headphones on. Sat on the porch one last time and watched the buses and cars roar by on Flatlands Ave. 

Went into Mom's bedroom and strangely enough there were a couple of paint cracked areas on the wall above the bed where my Mom took her last breath, the debris on the floor. Mom had left. 

Goodbye Brooklyn house. Thanks for the memories.