Garage Sale

A while back I lived in California and bumped into a friend of mine that I hadn't seen for years.
We were both standing in line to place our order at a fast food restaurant. Suddenly we recognized each other and started talking back and forth.
We were both so excited to see each other we sat down and shared a table together. It was so much fun just talking and seeing each other after so many years.
As we sat there talking, he started telling me about this guy that he had met at a garage sale in a nearby Sun City neighborhood.
I got so interested in what he was saying about this guy, I asked him to tell me the whole story from the beginning. I said to him, “if you don't mind I would like to write a short story about it”.
He said that would be great, and he began to tell me…….

One day I was driving around up-and-down a few streets In a Sun City neighborhood following a garage sale sign that was posted near a corner.
I turned down one street and then a couple of others and suddenly became so confused it was like going around in circles, it was like a maze, once I was in there I couldn’t find my way back out.
I pulled a long side the curb and asked this elderly man and woman walking at a slow pace down the sidewalk, excuse me, how do I get back out onto the main street that got me in here. The elderly gentleman laughed and said you're not the first to get lost in here. He explained to me how to get back out on the main street. I thanked him and started driving in the direction he gave me.
About a block down to the right I noticed the garage sale sign that I was looking for posted near the corner.
I always said I didn't like going to garage sales in Sun City, because the majority of the people that live there really don't want to part with anything. Usually everything they have is priced very high.
A number of them actually admitted they don't really want to part with any of their stuff.
Quite a few of them said, I have had this stuff for so long, it just brings back too many memories to let it go easy”.
But you know the older I get I'm thinking the same way, I have some stuff that goes way back that
I don't even want to part with myself.
Guess I pretty much understand how they feel,
as the years are even catching up with me.

Ok” I'm driving an 84 Ford pickup that I wouldn't part with for anything, so what does that tell you?

So I'm driving my old clunker around looking for that garage sale in their neighborhood.
I come upon it and made a quick U-turn in the middle of the street and pulled up in front of it. As I'm getting out of my truck, I noticed a lot of stuff scattered around on the long narrow driveway with some stuff scattered on top of a few tables.
As I was walking up the long driveway getting, closer to this elderly guy sitting in a wheelchair,
he was half way in the garage with a nice size coffee cup in his left hand, his right hand was shaking, and he had a donut lying on a plate half eaten in front of him. He had a cell phone lying near a large picture of him and a woman on the table.
As I was getting closer to him and looking at the different stuff on the tables, I looked over towards him saying “hi, how you doing today?”
His head slowly moved upwards and after a matter of seconds his eyes glassy he mumbled out,
“Not too good today”.
Standing there in front of him not knowing what was wrong he seemed like a real nice guy and looked to be in his late 80’s.
I said, “what's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?”
He started crying and as tears rolled down his face, he mumbled out through his tears that his wife died a month ago and he misses her so-so much.
He reached out towards me, his hand shaking to hold my hand, so I grabbed his hand and told him that things will be ok. I reached over with my right hand and moved a chair that was near him and sat down next to him. I said, what’s your name? After a few seconds he said, Robert.
He started telling me about his wife that had passed away a month ago from a long illness of cancer.
He told me he was so stressed out about losing her that he didn't know how to cope with everything.
Holding my hand very tightly saying I loved her so much I don't know how I can survive without her.
I miss her terribly everything I do or look at in our home reminds me of her. I just don't know how I can go on without her.
As he kept crying a woman pulled up in front of the sale, as she got out of her car and started walking towards us very slowly, walking with a cane and looking at a few items.
Thinking to myself maybe she could make him feel more relaxed if she would just take a few seconds and say a couple of words to him from a woman's voice, I think he would feel much better.
She walked up near us and said, “what's wrong with him?” I said his wife passed away about a month ago and he's having trouble coping with it.
With a rough sounding voice, very direct she said “that's too bad” and turned and walked back to her car not looking back at him or at anything he had for sale, she simply got in her car and drove away.
I felt so bad for him, he was going on about his wife and how much fun they used to have together and how long they had been married but never had any kids. I said, “Robert you’re going to be okay, it will take some time to get over it”……
Well let me see what you are selling here, I started to stand up to look at a few things.

He suddenly said no, I just decided I don't want to sell anything it's too hard on me.
Could you help me shove everything back into the garage, I don't want to sell anything please could you help me.
I said sure Robert, stay seated I'll start putting everything back in the garage for you.
As I'm gathering things together to put them in the garage, a next door neighbor lady came over.
I explained to her what was happening with Robert and she said yes, I know that he's been pretty stressed about losing her he took care of her for a long time.
She said let me help you put all this stuff a way. That would be nice, so we both started gathering everything and putting it away.
After a short while stacking stuff in the garage, we heard some noise and we looked back out of the garage. Robert had stumbled getting up out of his wheelchair and fell against one of the tables.
We rushed over to him but he seemed fine and just had a bruised elbow, we helped him get back into his chair. When he was resting comfortably,
we finished putting everything in the garage.
It seemed that Robert was doing much better.
He wasn't crying and seemed more relaxed, now that we had everything back in the garage for him.
I talked to him for a few more minutes telling him how sorry I was to hear what happened to him losing his wife. I said Robert you’ll be fine I know it's hard to get through all this, but this is where you have to be strong.
I know, as he tipped his head towards my chest and then looked up towards my face with watery eyes and said thank you for coming by and just letting me get all this out. That's what I needed, someone I could talk too, you have been very kind.
As I started walking towards my truck, I heard him say, come and see me sometime soon I turned and said, “Ok I will.”
I notice he was holding that picture that was on the table of him and the woman tightly against him….I felt very sad as I was driving away, as I looked in my rear view mirror, I could see the old guy still clutching the picture against his chest.

This was all told to me by a friend.

A Story by Norman Clifford