Joanne - I too was gone most of last year - but I was just busy working 3 jobs. I am so sorry to hear about your mother. I have yet to face losing mine - and I am so sorry that you had to. I am glad you are back to jfc - and back in the land of the living - it takes a while to get there - doesn't it? All those "firsts" are so rough. Take care. Mindy
Much of last year I either lurked or just deleted the messages as 2001 was an incredibly difficult year! Mom and I shared separate living quarters in the same house (I lived in the apartment in the basement) with shared storage and laundry areas. We were also best friends. April 25 Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She died 16 weeks later, leaving me with a house that feels very empty even though there is too much stuff in it. I spent much time upstairs in the last few weeks of Mom's life and found out the additional light and more open feel upstairs helped my depression. I started living upstairs shortly after Mom died. I have restricted what I bring upstairs, non-essential stuff only comes up when I have found it a home. I have a really hard time even boxing up Mom's stuff. I understand why but I am still frustrated that there is no room for anything - my apartment downstairs is worse so I should be used to it. I am moving from surviving to living, having the holidays over helps. As I get closer to the end of the grief maze, I think I will be able to better keep up with the day to day stuff and then get back to decluttering - even if I just box most of Mom's stuff up and stack it the apartment downstairs. Joanne To Unsubscribe from the Digest version of the list send the unsubscribe message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Journey from clutter List Website http://journeyfromclutter.com Members Only Page http://journeyfromclutter.com/MembersOnly/MembersArea.htm Unsubscribe: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word 'unsubscribe' in the 'Subject:' field to be removed from the main list. To Unsubscribe from the Digest version of the list send the unsubscribe message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
