The Estate Fair

I went to an Estate Fair today where an entire house is opened up and practically everything inside is for sale (apart from the light fittings as the signs indicated). These usually happen after a person dies; it's a way for the family to sort through and sell on their belongings. This particular house was full to the brim. We traipsed through the living room, the kitchen, the garage and the bedrooms. By the time I left, I felt as though I knew the person. She was a collector, a cook, a mother, a grandmother; she liked to sew, to paint, to cosy up with a quilt, and at Christmas time, her house was full of decorations and family. It felt odd to be rifling through a stranger's life, to be passing items with little interest that may have been her most prized possessions; her favourite mug, the chair her husband sat in, her mother's dishes. I wondered how she would feel to see it all laid bare and sold.  

I came away with a chair and a bench. As I placed them in my new home and thought about how excited I was to have them, I decided that she wouldn't have minded at all.