Rightsizing

This is Chuck and Gerry. Yesterday I sold them my dining room set.

In a couple of months I will be moving from this 3,000 square-foot house, where I raised my four kids with my husband, to an 800 square-foot apartment, where I will finish raising the last one by myself.

There are so many things that are hard about that. One of them that is really hard is getting rid of sentimental things.

Many of them are not even being used. They are stored in the attic and the crawl space for when they might have been needed again: The dog cage from our loyal Basset Hound Belle, the wagon we pulled the kids around the neighborhood in every Halloween, the grave stones my second daughter made with her dad to scare the trick-or-treaters.

Many things have proven impossible to part with: The rocking chair where I breast-fed our four children will get drug around with me for many more years, I think. I'd like to someday pass it on to my oldest daughter Abby, who carried her dolls until she was 12 years old and dreams every day of being a mother.

But there are things like the dining room set that have to go. Emptying the drawers yesterday I found some momentos to keep: Place cards made for the Thanksgiving table by my youngest daughter Bridget and the original receipt for the furniture that we found one day when all six of us took a trip to Amish country.

Chuck and Gerry are moving to Texas to be near their son and his grandchildren. For Gerry, it will be the first time she has ever owned a formal dining room set.

She is excited about the family being together at the holidays and eating meals at that beautiful table.

I am trying to remember that the table is going with her, but the memories of our many meals there are staying with me and can never be taken or sold.

I am trying to remember that my life isn't just getting smaller, it is getting more authentic.

I am counting on the fact that one day there will be for me another home, and another special table where I will gather on special days with all the people that I love.