I learned a lot about my dad this week.
For the past three days, our family has sorted through dad's belongings. The last few steps of the sorting process included thousands of books and six or seven file cabinets. Despite what most people think, it is possible to live without a computer - and my dad is proof of that. I'm not sure exactly how many documents can be stored on a computer hard drive, but I do know now what eighty-eight years of collecting and gathering and storing looks like. My dad kept everything. And he was intensely organized.
After this week, I know how much money my dad spent on groceries every week for the past fifty years. I know what his sermon texts were for his Christmas sermons in 1963. I know my dad's grades in junior high school. I know details about the evaluations my dad received during his time in the navy.
And I also know what my dad valued most.
For the past three days, our family has sorted through dad's belongings. The last few steps of the sorting process included thousands of books and six or seven file cabinets. Despite what most people think, it is possible to live without a computer - and my dad is proof of that. I'm not sure exactly how many documents can be stored on a computer hard drive, but I do know now what eighty-eight years of collecting and gathering and storing looks like. My dad kept everything. And he was intensely organized.
After this week, I know how much money my dad spent on groceries every week for the past fifty years. I know what his sermon texts were for his Christmas sermons in 1963. I know my dad's grades in junior high school. I know details about the evaluations my dad received during his time in the navy.
And I also know what my dad valued most.