by Tricia
It’s hard to believe, but it has been years since my friend passed away. I still think about him daily, and I still wonder why he had to take his own life.
I would like to share with everyone something about my friend that I have carried with me through my life. It’s funny how a little comment can have such an effect on you. Here’s the brief story.
While at my friend’s house, he let slip out that he has tons of things in the attic that the previous owner had left. Being the treasure finder that I am (you should see me at garage sales – LOL), I wanted him to show me. We went in the attic and my mouth dropped. It was a goldmine in terms of antiques. There were records, old store items, just lots of old everything.
I said, “Wow, you can get so much money for this stuff when you sell it.”
He quickly replied, “No, no, no. I’m not going to sell this stuff. All of it needs to go into a museum or something for everyone to see.”
I didn’t reply, and sort of changed the subject. Here he had probably a few thousand dollars worth of antique items sitting in his attic (I’m guessing here – but he could have made a bit of money) and he wanted to see a museum get the items. I think that simple conversation surprised me so much because I’ve never really known of someone like that before. Someone who has a treasure, but doesn’t want the money for it.
He never did get a chance to go through his attic before he died. His comment made such an impact on me that I wanted to go through the attic and make sure it goes to the local museum/archives like he wanted. I asked his parents, and they boxed everything up for me and let me handle the task.
About a fourth of the items went to the local history archives. They found some value with the old bills and some of the older paperwork. And the other items went to a local history museum. I have walked through the museum since donating the items and I have found them all around the museum on display.
My friend certainly was special. He was the type of person that would do anything to help, even if it meant helping someone he didn’t know or helping a local organization. He could have used the money from selling those things, but he chose to not to.
Man, I miss you my friend…