Her mail comes to my house now
I thought that would mean I get the bills
Apparently the junk mail is included
She didn’t think it was junk mail though. She loved her catalogs.
When I went to see her – or anyone who came through the door, the first task before entering the house was checking the mail.
The mailbox is across the street so she was afraid to go in case she had a seizure or fell. God forbid she take her walker.
On my way in with the pile I often just stopped at the recycling bin and tossed her junk mail in to keep her from spending too much on the strawberry fairies (for me because I have a strawberry theme), the colorful skirts with watercolor pencils (for my daughter the artist) or for any number of household amazing items you can’t possibly imagine.
Sometimes she placed orders on the phone then made one of the grandkids go get money orders to pay for it so I wouldn’t know.
Only I did.
Sometimes she said “go on that button pushing thing and order these,” meaning go online. Whoever got the shotgun shaped plungers for their toilets, I’m sorry.
Then all the requests for donations. Oh my goodness. She would put the requests for money to Israel, starving children, paralyzed veterans and homeless. I would tell her she is going to be starving and homeless if she sent money to all those people.
God sees her heart. He knows she is more generous than what he has blessed her with. She always told him (me, everyone) she just needed more money. There’s so much to buy! I just wanna be rich.
They say money can’t buy happiness but I’m pretty sure she would have been happy being rich and buying everything in those catalogs and giving thousands to those charities.
I gave up telling her to stop buying junk for us. It made her happy. I paid her bills. It’s only money. Every now and then I let her donate.
So the junk mail has been trickling in over the past three months. Then yesterday ..
Oh my. So hard to resist those free shipping offers. The sales. The abundance.
Recycled.
©Belindabotzong2019 g
