#MicroblogMondays: Letting go... bit by bit

I never collected a lot of things for Katie during my pregnancy with her (as I think I've mentioned here before). Things were tentative right from the start:  spotting all through the first trimester, an uncertain blood screening test and a troubling ultrasound, followed by amniocentisis -- and an almost THREE WEEK WAIT for the results. 

When the results came back "normal," in late July (1998), I finally felt like I could start shopping. But by then, shower plans were underway for the September long weekend, and I was instructed not to buy too much yet;  I was going to get a ton of stuff at the party. (Which was never held.)  

As a result, my mementos of that time have been few. They mostly fit in two plastic bins that sit in the spare bedroom/office closet, and a large hatbox on the upper shelf of our bedroom closet. (Plus a smaller, shoebox-sized plastic bin full of artificial flowers, hanging ornaments and other decorations, both seasonal and general, for Katie's niche at the cemetery.)  

At one time, I couldn't have imagined letting go of any of it... but over time, little by little, I have actually sent a few things off to the thrift store. I got rid of most of my pregnancy & infertility books years ago (I kept my copy of "What To Expect While You're Expecting" as a "souvenir"), and I finally let go of most of my maternity clothes when we downsized from a house to our condo, 9 (!) years ago now (18 years after they were last worn). I did keep the outfit I'd been wearing when I went to my ob-gyn's office for my six-month checkup that fateful day in August 1998, as well as two or three pretty dresses that I'd loved.  

And... in one of those two plastic bins, I kept the one major thing I did buy for our baby in that brief interval between the good news and the absolute worst: a Classic Pooh themed bedding set, including a comforter, fitted sheet, bumper pads (which aren't even used any more), bedskirt and window valance, as well as two rolls of a matching wallpaper border.  (We had to order the border, and it didn't arrive until after the funeral. I couldn't bring myself to open the box for about five years -- and I used to joke that it would be funny if I waited all that time, only to find out it was the wrong paper!)(It WAS the right one!)  

I guess I've been in a bit of a spring cleaning mood, because I recently combed through the my (overstuffed) closet and armoire recently and pulled out enough old or seldom-worn items of clothing to fill a large plastic garbage bag. And then I did something I'd been contemplating for a while. I decided I could (finally) part with the bedding set (almost 27 years after we bought it!). I asked dh what he thought, and he agreed it was time. 

It was still in the original Sears bag (note: Sears closed all its Canadian stores in 2017), inside that plastic bin in the spare bedroom/office closet. I took everything out of the bag, set aside the folder with the sales receipt inside to keep (we got everything on sale! $177 Canadian!!), and took a few photos before I put it all back into the bag and into the pile of stuff for the thrift store. We dropped it all off on Friday morning. 

I felt a little sad. 

But no tears were shed. 

The comforter -- still in its original packaging. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.