Did you ever find something left behind by someone who has gone?

Blue envelopes, stained sheets, wrinkled letters, old poems, preserved Easter Eggs.

A strange mixture of nostalgic, sad, and thankful.

Men often leave things at my house. It gives them a reason to come back and retrieve it, and have a little more fun. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book.

An old pink pillow, a locket, Leaves of Grass, mixed tapes.
I’ve cried at times when looking at these things; other times I am relived.

The items left behind in hotel rooms by guests are simply shocking. Maybe I should write a book about it.

money,tickets in the bus, but I never take them to myself.

@Pied_Pfeffer can you give a few examples, please?

@free_fallin why did you cry or be relieved? What did those things mean to you?

After my dad passed, my mother kept all of clothes in drawers and on hangers, as though he were still alive. they were truly devoted to each other. now that my mother is in a nursing home, i have the responsibility of taking care of her finances and her home. while inspecting her house one day, i ran across an old .22 cal. single-shot rifle. it is very old. i never knew the real story behind this rifle, but rumors were that a step-uncle of mine committed suicide with it. i can neither prove or disprove this story. point is, this rifle is now my responsibility. what to do with it? i believe i will dismantle it, break it into pieces and throw it in a river or lake. wait, that will never do. someone will think its a murder weapon. i have a better idea. i will take it to a pawn shop and let the time run out on it and never retrieve it. someone else can buy it, after an approved background check. well, i solved that problem right her on Fluther.

Examples:
* a hearing aid
* a bankroll of money hidden inside the smoke detector
* porn stashed above a ceiling tile in a bathroom (and porn in general places, but that is common)
* toenail clippings on a recliner’s material hammock between the seat and the foot rest
* sex toys
* Well-made Viking costumes that belonged to a company a few states away
* A dead duck in the dryer of the guest laundry room
* Enough blood splashed upon the walls, carpeting and furniture, as well as in the bathroom, that we were surprised not to find a dead body. We had to call in a special cleaning service. This was before AIDs/HIV existed.
* “The Bloody Boxspring.” (I didn’t find this one, but a co-worker did and sent us a photo. It looked like it was soaked in blood and body fluid, and hand-prints were visible.)

@wundayatta I cried because of the things that belonged to the people who have died. I was relived because of the pain they no longer suffered.

Like pennies from heaven?
After my dad died I had a strange thing happen;)

Hubby spent most of his anniversary vacation week helping his mother go through his recently deceased Dad’s stuff. Mom won’t let anybody other than Hubby touch his stuff, so he has spent several vacations doing that. He actually enjoys the opportunity to help his Mom.

Anyway, he found a keychain with the word “Grandpa” on it which was a gift from our son many years ago. Now a proud grandpa himself, Hubby put his favorite keys on it.

I discovered the fact that my Mom loved yellow butterflies (months after her death). I had no idea before she passed that she loved them so much. The weird thing is, I picked out her urn. It was covered in butterflies.

My Pops played the lottery daily. After he passed I would find pieces of paper in my pocket or purse with numbers that he had wrote down for me to play for him because he didn’t have the energy to walk to the store to play. I have saved these scraps and whenever I come across them I will play them in the lottery. No luck yet, but it brings a smile and feels good to feel his presence and see his handwriting.

I remember finding one of my mom’s hearing aids under a couch cushion the day after she died. It made me sad because the last couple of weeks of her life it was hard to talk to her on the phone because of that. She would put the phone to that ear forgetting that she didn’t have the hearing aid in.

Then about 2 weeks before she died, she gave me a letter to mail to my dad. (She was home, he was in the hospital.) I put it in my purse and forgot about it. About a month after she died, I found it. I opened it and read it and cried. Part of it was typical mom – the weather, etc. – the rest was her encouraging him to be strong and get well so he could be at home with her and help her to get better. 16 years later, I still carry that letter in my purse. To me it’s a tribute to how much they loved each other.