September 27 – “A haunting?”

We went to an estate sale yesterday.  Chris is still looking for a cabinet to display her Precious Moments figurine collection that has been boxed up since Hurricane Ike.  She has seen a few she likes, but just hasn’t been able to bring herself to pull the trigger.  People are really proud of their furniture.  It’s hard to believe how really expensive those things are. 

At the sale we did have an unusual experience.  Now usually people have an estate sale when the owner has died and the heirs have collected all the family pieces they want.  Estate sale companies then come in, price everything, and man the site in garage sale format.  This one had numerous beautiful antique furniture pieces, although nothing that even came close to what Chris was looking for.  There was lots of art on the walls, both paintings and prints.  There were even several sculptures.  You don’t see that too often.  There was an artist’s studio set up over the detached garage.  It had more sculptures (really expensive ones) along with paints and canvases.  And the garage itself was lined with old books along with the requisite tools and lawn equipment.  Now about the books.  I have to confess that is where I spent the bulk of my time.  Some of the books were fascinating.  Some were very old, even from the 19^th century.  Others were more recent, but a lot of the more recent ones had a charm of their own.  Many of them were all about conspiracy theories and mysterious findings and, how shall I say it? … “creative” speculations.  There were books on the Lincoln and Kennedy assassination conspiracies.  Several on UFO’s.  There was obviously a particular interest in the Lost Island of Atlantis.  And among the artsy-type books were numerous ones on Salvadore Dali.  Needless to say, although we had never met, I liked this person a lot. 

With a few books in hand, we left the garage and went back into the house.  We still had an entire second floor to investigate.  As it turned out, only two rooms up there were open to the sale, a bedroom and a library of sorts adjoining it.  As we entered the library, to check out even more books of course, we saw two ladies, each with a book in her hands.  One nodded politely as we entered and left the room.  The other, however, was alternately chuckling and sighing and silently muttering to herself as she leafed through volume after volume.  The thing that really caught my attention was her comment, “Oh, dear.  What HAVE I gotten myself into.”  As we worked our way closer to her, she exclaimed, “Oh, would you look at this,” and held out the book of artwork for us to see.  I had no idea what the picture was, but she was excited about it, so I said something witty and charming along the lines of “Wow, amazing.”  And from the moment I opened my mouth, we had a new best friend.  But this was not just any old lady.  She identified herself as … are you ready for this? … the owner of the house.  Spooky, huh?  Now I don’t think she was a ghost, although she did look somewhat older than me, but in these old Galveston homes, one can never be too sure.  And it is almost October.  She was quite chatty, too.  Chris admired one of the old dresses hanging nearby.  Our new friend went into a monologue about how she wore that particular one back in the 60’s when “we called them our slinkies.”  Chris commented that some of the others must have been what she wore during Mardi Gras.  That brought an explanation of her penchant for “getting into character” by wearing the “appropriate” period dress when she served as a docent for things like Egyptian museum exhibit openings.  Chris finally asked the question that had been burning in our minds since she appeared.  “Are you the owner?”  I couldn’t have been more intrigued as I leaned forward to hear her answer.  A bubbly, “Yes” was her immediate reply, and she followed that up with a little history of how she had lived in the house for twelve years.  She was from the Dallas area and intended to move up there to be closer to grandchildren.  Now some of her history seemed a little strange to me.  She explained that her daughter had inherited the house.  OK.  Then she said her daughter needed the money so she decided to sell the house.  OK.  Then she said she bought the house.  Now I’m totally confused.  She bought it from her daughter?  After the daughter inherited it?  So who willed it to the daughter?  Was her timeline a little messed up here?  Was she … Wait a minute.  That was all a little too creepy for me.  We ended our conversation amiably, wishing her well in her new haunt up in Dallas … Hmm.  (No, I didn’t really say that to her, but I thought it).

1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Father, thank you for assurances like these that we can know what lies ahead of us.  And I’m so glad my future will be with you and not shuffling around a dusty old library reminiscing about days gone by.  Amen.