One of the hardest things I had to do this past weekend was to go through Grandma’s house to see what I wanted. It’s reusing, but of the most painful sort.

But I must say some of the things I got delight me. Some of her old pots, so that I can finally get rid of my old Teflon-coated ones that I have long detested. The coating is still good on them, so I couldn’t convince myself to just replace them, but I really don’t like using things with Teflon these days. Grandma’s pots are aluminum (I think), but well made and she used them as far back as I can remember.

I got her pressure cooker too. Very nice for cooking some things faster. I’ve been wanting one for years, but didn’t want to spend the money. No one else wanted it. I also have on the wish list a cast iron frying pan, but others are after those too, so we’ll see.

Of course, sentimental items are on the list too. She had so many beautiful things, and I had to keep reminding myself to keep it simple and that I have too much stuff just sitting in boxes as is.

Everyone agreed that it feels really weird going through her stuff so quickly. But there are a lot of us from out of town, so it was necessary. Besides, leaving it to sit doesn’t make sense either, and no one was being grabby about things. I have a really nice family.

My cousins wore some of her old jewelry to the funeral. They were a bit aplogetic about it, since they thought of it too late to get opinions, but we all said it was just fine. Frankly, even if they wanted to keep what they wore, I’d be fine with it.