Sunday, October 11, 2015

SHOWING THE HOUSE

I don't care to do this every day--getting the place spotless and clutter-less for potential buyers--so just as well am heading out of here on Thursday. 

Spent half of yesterday raking leaves, pine needles, pachysandra, myrtle, driveway, paths, front steps, anything else that needed raking, my hair, and today of course am living on Advil. Hillbillies arrived at 9 AM to de-needle the quarter of a mile long drive. Looked good for about 20 min, then the buggers started falling again. 

Showed a couple from Greenwich round at 10. Actually had met him last night at a neighbors' cookout round the fire pit, didn't make the connection. They won't buy, too big, but they'd be interested in renting weekends and so on. It may come to this. Then showed 6 New Yorkers around at 1, led by Daniel, proprietor of The Dreamaway Lodge. Not sure what they have in mind, all theatre types or teachers, so how they could afford this I don't know, they were talking about "all buying a place together", which sounds like a disaster to me but the fun part was discovering that one of them lived at 12 Gramercy Park, where my mother lived in NY from 1944 - 1964.

Wish she still had it. She paid $90 per month, rent control. Imagine it must be rather more these days.





Dinner and overnight guests, then I start the final countdown. Have spent 2 days digitally organizing Peg's archive, all that I've been scanning and copying and photographing for the past 5 years. Only scratched the surface. Would like to at least break the back of it before I go home and lose interest.

I went to see my 95 year old friend Jeanette Roosevelt (FDR's grandson's wife), at Sunset House,  the nursing home division of Kimball Farms Retirement Village. Broke my heart. Been to see her 3 or 4 times since July, but she was sleeping. This time though the nurse said to wake her, so I did. She was now sharing a room with a lady whose ankles are so fat she can't stand. I sat on Jeanette's bed, and held her hand and said her name, she opened her eyes, they lit up. I knew at once she knew me, asked about Alex and DK and...Peg. She didn't know. No one had told her. We both cried. 

I spent the rest of the day depressed--nursing homes do that to you just going in and out the door, imagine what it's like having to live there. And this is a NICE one. Jesus. So I came home and raked myself senseless, delighted for the invite two houses away, which ended up being the perfect tonic. Met lovely, really lovely people, including beautiful and about to give birth any second Danelle, who was Peg's Visiting Nurse physio, and when she recognized me in the dark, came over and threw her arms around me (almost sending both of us into the fire pit) saying how sorry she was about Peg, how she adored her. Her husband is a real estate lawyer. Offered his help if I need it. Extremely kind and they left fortunately before I had to go off and find towels and get the water boiling in the kitchen.

Sunny and crisp. The colors are superb this year, the sugar maples turning redder every day. (See how Brit I've become, talking about weather?)























No comments:

Post a Comment