06-06-2013, 07:22 PM
So my mom passed away last week and I've been cleaning up her place (this is why I haven't been actively posting the last few weeks; she was getting hospice care and I was with her) ANYWAY that's just context -- not the reason for the post.
So my sister and I scour the house high and low. "Where are the Christmas decorations?"
We've searched everywhere. We find a few scattered decorations that hadn't been put away last time they were out, and we find the fake tree. But none of the 60+ years of accumulated decor.
I'm quite sad about it. I check in the shed outside. Cheap modern plastic exterior holiday decorations are in there. But not the ornaments, wall hangs, and so on.
We're wondering if, maybe, she got rid of them in a fit. (Her last year wasn't so great, due to a stroke.) We check with her neighbor, and a few others, who'd been helping around the house. "I have no idea!"
Eventually I get in touch with someone who knows. When she had the bathroom redone a couple years ago to fix a rotted-out floor and update some things, she had a secret compartment installed in the wall behind the shower. The decorations are in there.
I see the niche -- it doesn't look abnormal. It's common to have such a "jag" in a room when the shower or tub isn't quite the same size as the bathroom. So, how do you get in there? You have to remove four sets of floor-to-ceiling shelves that are covered with towels, sheets and so on. Of course, they're pretty damned snug in there. There's NO way she could ever have accessed this stuff. It takes me a bit of effort to puzzle them out (since they interlock).
And behold. The boxes of Christmas decorations! (And her empty luggage set.) Now getting the shelves back in place? That's a job for another day. They're just not going back in the way they came out.
But, you could hide a child in there. If you needed to. It's so hidden, actually, that's about the ONLY part of the house I've found that didn't have a collection of mouse turds strewn about. Even the rodents never found it.
So my sister and I scour the house high and low. "Where are the Christmas decorations?"
We've searched everywhere. We find a few scattered decorations that hadn't been put away last time they were out, and we find the fake tree. But none of the 60+ years of accumulated decor.
I'm quite sad about it. I check in the shed outside. Cheap modern plastic exterior holiday decorations are in there. But not the ornaments, wall hangs, and so on.
We're wondering if, maybe, she got rid of them in a fit. (Her last year wasn't so great, due to a stroke.) We check with her neighbor, and a few others, who'd been helping around the house. "I have no idea!"
Eventually I get in touch with someone who knows. When she had the bathroom redone a couple years ago to fix a rotted-out floor and update some things, she had a secret compartment installed in the wall behind the shower. The decorations are in there.
I see the niche -- it doesn't look abnormal. It's common to have such a "jag" in a room when the shower or tub isn't quite the same size as the bathroom. So, how do you get in there? You have to remove four sets of floor-to-ceiling shelves that are covered with towels, sheets and so on. Of course, they're pretty damned snug in there. There's NO way she could ever have accessed this stuff. It takes me a bit of effort to puzzle them out (since they interlock).
And behold. The boxes of Christmas decorations! (And her empty luggage set.) Now getting the shelves back in place? That's a job for another day. They're just not going back in the way they came out.
But, you could hide a child in there. If you needed to. It's so hidden, actually, that's about the ONLY part of the house I've found that didn't have a collection of mouse turds strewn about. Even the rodents never found it.
