Paperwork


It's a wet and miserable Friday.
Apart from the usual chores and my weekly Auntie Glad visit, I've been thinking of what else to do today.
I have decieded on " spring cleaning" our paperwork.
Now the kitchen table is awash with files, bills, photographs, old cards, certificates, receipts, memorabilia and officialdom.
The important and the rubbish, all retrieved from drawers, from the old wooden writing slope of the Prof's that I've never opened, from gaps in the book shelves and from the little arts and crafts desk standing in the living room by the stairs.

I note that most of the photographs are older ones, now we reply on icloud and laptops to store our memories.
They feature me with a waist and the Prof with hair.
Wedding cards wrapped in ribbon. Orders of service from ten funerals. Old school reports, University   assignments from a film degree course - marks all over 70%! Dog pedigrees, nursing peformance reviews. A black bordered card from Ethel Kennedy thanking my mother for her card of condolence, my father's wartime identity card.
Birth certificates, death certificates, certificates and more certificates.

The history of two lives. Sorted into piles on the kitchen table.

40 comments:

  1. Forgot to mention - the neighbours have found more stuff belonging to you. She was rather concerned as some of it appeared to old patient notes.

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    1. I doubt that but keep it safe and I shall look at it when I come up in Dec

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  2. I bet none of it gets thrown away, but at least it will be tidy! Please show more old pics of you and the Prof.

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  3. You've probably mentioned before, but how long have you and the prof known each other? It takes a while to lose your hair! The waist unfortunately can change almost overnight.

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  4. A table full of memory triggers and proof of existence. Enjoy the process of sorting it out. Keep what triggers positive memories even if it makes no sense to do so.

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  5. Christ! I hope you haven't chucked anything out. Owd Prof'll go bananas.

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  6. please report back to us about your visit to auntie glad.

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  7. We all have our piles of paper that keep getting larger by the day. What you mentioned, though, sound like treasures. They just need organization.

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  8. I've often wondered if the world would come to an end if I chucked all the paperwork in the house...? Never let go of the photos

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  9. The Prof's old wooden writing slope you've never opened? Uh-oh. I can hear the future - 'where is my...?' 'I know I have it somewhere.' 'When you cleared this out did you throw away...?'

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  10. Foul day here too, and I've got a bloody cold!

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  11. I have moved house a few times in the past few years and I go through the "drawer cleaning" every time. My husband was the one who had no pity, everything was junk and he would throw it out. I would run save the "junk" and keep it, it was a keepsake, a memory.
    I am the packrat.
    Now at least, years later, I have hundreds of photos and a keepsake here and there of our years together. If I ever get to the point where it isn't painful, I will sit and enjoy looking at all of those photos .. and hopefully smile.

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  12. And what a waist [sic] of hair. We've brought back boxes of this stuff from New York. Your kitchen table isn't big enough. We await your arrival.

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  13. Anonymous12:32 pm

    Just as well the sorting did not include throwing out but sensibly divided into piles presumably one for you, one for the Prof, but shouldn't there be a joint pile?

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  14. It is always best to do spring cleaning off-season. I love to sort through old papers and photos - so many treasured memories.

    I used to have a letter and book from Ethel Kennedy. Unfortunately it was among the many things that was "lost" by the movers when I moved from Texas to Tennessee.

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  15. I worry about what paperwork to keep.

    ***** squeal***** I just saw an advert for the walking dead! OMG!!!!!!!!!!! cant wait

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  16. Ugh. I hate all that stuff. Even the old photos. Who WERE those people? They're all gone.
    But how do you through them away? I hate to think that one day my kids will be stuck with this stuff. But they probably will.

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  17. Now what? Acid free storage boxes perhaps? That will make it easier for dispose of them at a later date lol.

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  18. and then what? stuffed back into all the nooks and crannies?

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  19. You've found a great project for a rainy day. Will you be finding new storage areas for the retained items?

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  20. I had to sort thru some memory boxes for paperwork and photos recently.....howled in anguish when I found my late sisters 'school reports' from Chailey Heritage (a special school for disabled children in the 60s and 70s).
    xx
    I am broken and asking for help now, got drs today)

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  21. Old photografs always make me sad even if i was happy than.

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  22. I usually leave the clearing of old paperwork and extras for cold (yes it does get cold here in Arizona for 2 months) days. Just seems the perfect time to do it.
    Loved the old photos ! So handsome and you and the Prof look nice too.

    cheers, parsnip

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  23. I sort, then stack, then put everything back, nothing leaves, because I can't decide what to throw away.

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  24. Anonymous5:00 pm

    Good on you, John. I'm patting myself on the back for recently blitzing through a room and a) giving a friend my great grandmother's china, b) sorting through books and boxing up 2 boxes to be donated, c) cleaning out a gardening and tool closet to the point that now I know what's in there, and d) emptying a 2-drawer file cabinet. Next on my agenda is two more 2-drawer file cabinets full of heaven knows what. You've inspired me!

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  25. Awww, look how cute and young John and the Prof were in that picture on the bottom left! And holding the dogs...I love it! <3

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  26. I'm just surprised that you didn't call the post - Piles On The Kitchen Table!

    Paperwork sorting going on here too - must be the weather

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  27. You were quite a looker John! When is the Prof home? You seem at a loss without him.

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  28. You so often put me to shame. I really need to do that spring clean. And the other variety too.

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  29. It all sounds like important stuff to me! My paper files seem to be mostly old To Do lists, never completed.

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  30. I do this sort of thing sometimes John, and then put them all back 'sorted' and in a different order.

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  31. I'm thinking most will go back.

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  32. Last week I got on the internet and within 2 minutes had changed my name by deed poll back to my maiden name. Problem is, now all the other paperwork has to follow, so I've been going through a big metal filing cabinet sorting (and shredding) so that I know what needs to be changed to my new name. Not a bad thing though. I have a separate file called "important stuff" (creative thinking) where I put everything my kids would need to look at immediately if I pop my clogs. I am also in the process of making up a list of "codes" - bank codes, different accounts etc. Not a bad thing to do really because I think it is stressful enough to lose someone without having "avoidable" stress too. Love the picture of you your woofie in the bath by the way. Anna

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  33. At my Dads funeral last year I passed on pen drives full of the family photographs and a family tree to my siblings. Going through them was both heart rending and cathartic. Cue deep breath from us all. xx

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  34. Being P.o.A. for mother, I have to keep lots of documents but when her loads of stuff arrived after the house sale, there was mass shredding going on. Any photo she couldn't identify went.
    After my divorce, scrunching 30 years of junk was cathartic to say the least and yet I still find an odd paper or card. The best finds are something with my son's handwriting on it, I have so few examples and I'm sure this will happen more with this electronic age. Hand writing is a connection that you can touch.
    Now I have to do something with the desk behind me that is piled high and needs culling.

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  35. Now look what you've done.... A butterlfy in Trelawnyd flaps its wings and the recycling companies around the world are overflowing with paper shred! :)

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  36. A good job for a dark autumn day 😊

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  37. You are so industrious!

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