My mom’s packages got lost in the mail…my sister, after a few weeks realized it was actually a good thing.
My mom lives in Calabria, Italy. She packed eight large boxes of stuff to mail back to herself when she was visiting my sister in Savannah, GA. “Some things you just can’t get in Italy” she said. Tin foil…well really silly things in my opinion but I try to come from a non-judgmental place. It was over $1000 worth of stuff plus the expensive shipping costs.
Also, my sister was giving away some old things she didn’t want anymore. As our mother is looking through the boxes for Good Will she said “Why would you want to get rid of these beautiful champagne glasses? I’ll take them! One day you might want them back.” My mother never gets rid of anything. For my sister they were just dusty glasses from a previous marriage she knew she never wanted to see again. There were some other items as well that just reminded her of times she could care less to recall.
Then, the packages never showed up in Italy. For weeks and weeks my mother would call my sister, “but where are my packages? All my things” She would say with such distress. “Go down there and talk to him! Ask him where they are!” When my mom called me to tell me what happened my response was “Chalk it up to a loss, you really don’t need any of that stuff anyway. Just take it as a sign”. She wasn’t thrilled with that response.
I have to say, my sister is very persistent when she wants to be. After calling the packing store numerous times, four visits to the location, a few calls to the corporate office and a claim at the BBB she is now on a payment plan with the store to receive $850 back from the lost packages.
Of course, my mom gave her a list right away of things to buy with the money because she really needed them.
My sister called to tell me that she feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders because of this situation with our mom’s stuff. Then she said “You know what? I’m happy those boxes got lost in the mail with my old things. I never wanted to see them again and now when I go to visit mom next month, I won’t be running into my old baggage.”
I guess even your own stuff can weigh down other people. My sister has been anchored down for months over this. All for some tin foil and old glasses. Also, with the possibility of being reminded of something she wanted to move on from but someone else wasn’t letting her.
We have had some really rough times with our mom. A hard and rocky past but even still, she is our mother. I hope one day she will realize that even if she got rid of all of the stuff in her enormous house, there still won’t be enough room to fit all the love that my sister and I have for her.
My confession…my sister was getting rid of this set of four, hand painted, burgundy wine glasses and I told her to send them to me. This time using USPS. They still haven’t arrived. It has been 3 weeks but I’m not going to call my sister and tell her. I'll just take it as a sign.