In due time, my Uncle Michael’s personal belongings—items I had meticulously boxed up with care—would be removed from the cabin and taken to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and other thrift stores in local communities. Few of his belongings would be passed on to my mother and sisters. No one really wanted my uncle’s things, calling his trinkets trash.
Truth told, I wanted to keep some of Uncle Michael’s belongings for myself: the furniture inside the cabin, dishes and flatware in the kitchen, his collection of glass paperweights, paperback and hardback novels, and some of his gardening tools.
My goal within the next few weeks while living at the cabin: talk to my mother and convince her I could buy the cabin and its land from my uncle’s estate, splitting its profits among Mother and my sib
