What's in a room...

One of the things that comes up sometimes in Grief Support is what to do with "their" stuff. Do you keep everything? Can you bear to go into their bedroom? Am I hanging on to too much? Am I creating a "shrine"?

Laurie's bedroom was upstairs, next to Pete's and my room. Because the Michel grandkids, Denver, Maya and Isaiah, are here on the weekends, we have begun to change her room into their room. I have cleared some dresser drawers for their clothes, mostly compacting Laurie's copious notes saved since seventh grade and her stationary stuff used to write notes of encouragement. I still have several of her tee shirts, thinking someday I will make a quilt from them. I love those old dressers that actually belonged to my mom and dad when they first married. That would make those dressers 58 years old. That's vintage though updated with the cool square pulls Laurie and I picked out to replace the old ones.

The pictures show new bunk beds, a kids table filled with toys. If you look close you can see a book Katie found at a library book sale titled "June 7". That was Laurie's birthday, coming too soon. Unchanged are her books on the shelves behind and her stack of journals. I just can't pack them away. And the LOVE, LAUGH, and DREAM signs are new. Bought for a mere $.50 each. I hope those who enter there will remember to do those things. Then there is her dresser filled with framed photos... I sometimes come in there late at night, looking into each one, seeing nothing but joy and laughter in her eyes.

And the mirror over her dresser...I remember she wanted that exact mirror so much. And still stuck to it is a note Kristin wrote her, probably not too long before Laurie went missing. It reads:

"Good morning, my beautiful sister.
I love you.
Have a great day...
I'll see you tonight.
(Heart) Kristin"

The note stays.