Sorting Ghosts (6-8-09)

Times have gotten pretty tough at work. Like much of America , retail just isnt what it was 5 years ago. To make matters worse, theres politics in this company that are right off the pages of any T.V. show script about evil, ignorant, vindictive people fighting for control and revenge. The end result is that weve had to look far and wide for new inventory since our old source is no longer available to us due to this in house political prick waving.

One of the places weve had to look is locally. Weve been advertising our willingness to buy collections of items from regular people and weve been pretty busy with so many looking to unload their collectibles. In some cases its a guy trying to pawn off his Star Wars figures, in other cases its someone giving up their proud collection of items theyve spent most of their lives obtaining.

One case in particular that has grabbed me recently is that of a lady from Kenmore . Weve bought a ton of things that used to belong to her. I say used to because she died at the age of 74 approximately 2 months ago. I guess her family didnt know what to do with all of the things she had, and believe me she had a lot of stuff. This isnt someone who went out a few weekends and bought some items. This is someone who has steadily bought things for a long time, hardly used them and threw nothing away. Basically I feel like Im putting her life up for sale. Its all of her books, paintings, favorite recordings, and all of her memories. I look through the books, inspecting them for damage and I find little book marks, newspaper and magazine clippings, notes and all sort of little things inside their pages.

The whole process is surreal to me. I dont know what we paid for the dozens upon dozens of boxes of her things and frankly, I dont want to know. I dont want to affix a number to it. On the other hand, Im going through this collection of her life through these items and I feel like I know her a little. Judging by what I've seen she seemed like a nice lady who had many interests and an eye towards organization. Id bet she knew a lot about all sorts of things. She also took great care of her books as many of them are a few years old and still look like new. She seemed to have an interest in Russian history, art (especially drawing and sketching), gardening, birds, traveling and religion. She also had a deep love for this area as Ive gone through so many books about Buffalo, or about the history and beauty of this region which warms my heart because I love this area as well. Shes been collecting for a long time as she has some titles that go back to the 60s and then she has some that are very recent which tells me she was buying things, acquiring knowledge and pursuing her interests until close to the end.

Going through her things during these past few work days has me thinking. I cant help but wonder about my own life. If I were gone tomorrow and someone walked into my apartment what would they know about me? What could they learn? Im sure this is a weird thing to think about, but going through some strangers life collection to see what can sell well is an uncommon thing too. Before last week Ive never met and gotten to know someone who was gone but now that I think about it, is she really gone? I guess these books will live on and find new homes that would not have been possible without her. Maybe a few of them will have an impact on someone's life. They could be inspiration. They could be knowledge. They could be the information needed to make an important life choice. I guess every used book has a story and while some are better than others this is the first time in 6 years of retail Ive known so much about the ones Im selling.