I wrote and rewrote that damned mom's closet post 3 1/2 times and I could never figure out exactly what it was about the closet that was so... significant and revealing to me. I couldn't get my words around what it was that I was trying to convey.
Here is the readers digest version of the closet novella:
1. The jam packed over sized walk in closet was always kind of a frightening mystery to me.
2. The wastefulness of all those clothes, shoes, and purses offended my frugal sensibility.
3. That was about all I felt about mom's closet until I spent three days in the closet cleaning it out. (Yes, there was that much stuff)
4. This closet and all the time, effort and money that mom spent shopping and selecting and trying things on, all that conscious brain power and drive just to get the exact shade of green shoes, is mom's, kind of lame if you ask me, legacy to us.
5. Again, after a brief 68 years on this planet my mom left a perfectly organized by color, print, season, designer, and size closet of barely worn clothes, shoes and purses. This was all she wrote. That closet was it. That closet and taking care of dad were the only things mom ever did.
6. At mom's funeral I silently thought that if one more person told me what a great dresser mom was I was going to bash their head in.
7. As badly as dad wanted that closet cleaned out, he was beaming with pride over that closet. Dad thought that every single item in that closet was precious. Because mom picked it out.
8. Mom spent her entire life shopping and spending tons of money because it was the way she made dad happy. Dad wanted mom to buy new pretty clothes every day of her life because he enjoyed seeing his "beautiful blondie" all dressed up. Again for me: Dad wanted mom to throw his hard earned money away on too many clothes (enough for a whole troop of homemakers) because he adored her so and thought she was the most beautiful woman ever while Mom was doing it all because she was devoted to making dad happy.
9. I still don't really get it. But I am trying to wrap my mind around the meaning of the closet as opposed to the excessiveness of it. What it means, what that closet really represented was (I think) the unparalleled mutual admiration and passion mom and dad had for each other, swaddled in a twisted consumerist package, but still..... they had quite the extraordinary love story going on there.
That's really sweet. He wanted her to look pretty because he loved her and thought she deserved it. She wanted to look pretty for him becasue it made him happy to see her in pretty clothes. That is extraordinary and very special. It sounds like they had a wonderful love story. They were very lucky to have each other.
Posted by: Laura | August 20, 2008 at 09:36 PM
Thanks to you
Posted by: NewssyLee | September 05, 2008 at 06:39 PM