Chapter 1
San Diego

On June 20th, Alison and I joined my sisters -- Clover (from Texas) and Pat (San Diego). First, we were joined by Don, (Pat’s husband) for a tastily Mexican restaurant dinner on a patio, before facing the task at hand. We had come to attempt to clean out our parents’ storage unit, 62 years of memories and belongings. It was daunting to say the least. Old stories and tears flowed abundantly. Each day we arrived early at the storage unit, lifting a sofa bed away from the doorway to enter. We worked our way towards the back slowly, pulling out boxes to take fill two vehicles and take back to the house to go through, item by item! Marking the ones we wanted and then drawing straws for the ones marked by more than one. Later, returning the remaining items to be sold, the next day. Finally, after the boxes had been gone through, we had bids on the remaining boxes and furniture in the storage unit. So many years, so many memories, and not much value today!