Passages
Today, I brought the rest of Mom's clothes to Family Services Woodfield in Bridgeport. This wonderful nonprofit maintains a free store in their basement that includes clothing, household good and other items. I did it without crying, smiling all the while I was there. I've been driving around with these 12 or 15 bags of clothes since the beginning of December, after my sister and I cleaned out the closets and her bureau. I had already brought her coats to the Stratford South End Community Center for the coat closet, but for some reason just couldn't bring myself to drop off Mom's clothes. There are plenty of mementos and costume jewelry pieces and pictures that we've kept. Her clothing didn't even "smell" like her anymore. I had been shifting it from the way back of the Jeep to the back seat and vice versa as needed over the past months. It was habit to just pile stuff on top of the bags, after a trip to Big Y or BJ's. I couldn't eve...