Last Saturday morning I pulled out of my driveway about 6:30 a.m. While stopping to pick up my morning paper, I was shocked to see cars lining both sides of our street. We live on a fairly long street and the cars and trucks stretched form one end to the other. I noticed a sign on the corner across from my driveway announcing an estate sale three doors down from my house beginning at 8:00 o’clock a.m. and the masses were already gathering.

My first reaction was one of sadness. I knew the lady that lived there before she died several months before and thinking about her worldly possessions being sold like this bothered me in a way that is hard to describe. Mrs. McNeely was a great lady. While I did not know her well I was around her for several years and had grown to appreciate what a true southern lady she was. I first knew her long before moving into her neighborhood from her work at Decatur General Hospital. My wife had worked there when we first married and I had gotten to know Mrs. McNeely through conversations in the gift shop or on the hallways while waiting on my wife. Mrs. McNeely always looked so pretty with her perfectly fixed hair and makeup and her smartly pressed hospital volunteer smock. Later after I begin to play golf at Decatur Country Club I would see Mrs. McNeely on the golf course, always walking, pushing her cart and clearly enjoying not only the game but also the friends she was playing with that day.

I really did not know when Mrs. McNeely got sick and out of action for the last time. I do remember the day my wife told me Mrs. McNeely had passed away, and though I had not been a close friend I felt that sudden emptiness one feels when someone you know and admire is gone and you will never see them again. My gut reaction was that a very neat person, that attacked aging with such style and vigor, had left us and was going to me missed by so many she enjoyed and who equally enjoyed her.

I had no interest in the items covered under the ‘Estate Sale’ banner, I did not want anything and probably could not afford anything. Still I felt discomfort in knowing these treasures Mrs. McNeely had acquired and accumulated over such a long period of time, would just be sold to anyone who showed up at 6:30 in the morning in a pick-up truck. I kept this sad and miserable feeling all morning until sometime after lunch when I again left my house headed for my weekly trip to ‘ACE HARDWARE’. As I eased down the street, winding my way through the cars and trucks parked on both sides of the street, I had to stop for a moment while a husband and wife lugged a fairly large rug across the street and fitted it into the trunk of their older model Buick. These two were so happy with their find and purchase that they were actually laughing together. I heard the husband telling the wife about what a deal they had found. “Can you believe we got that for $250,” he said, “it will be perfect in out living room”. His wife could not resist, “I told you it would be worth coming and you didn’t believe me”.

The rest of the day I watched others come out of Mrs. McNeely’s house and now saw them a little differently. Most of them seem to be extremely happy, some even laughing as they carried their new treasures to their cars and trucks. I was amazed at how much the purchases seemed to mean to these new treasure hunters. I don’t know why but I begin to wonder if the joy these new owners were feeling was like what Mrs. McNeely had felt when she first found these items. Maybe this was the best way to honor Mrs. McNeely. To share those things that meant so much to her with others that would now treasure the items the same as Mrs. McNeely and hopefully gain the same enjoyment and pride that my friend had found.