Grandma’s pearls were missing, she feared lost forever. “She is very upset”, her nephew said when he first called us. It often happens when families live far away, staying in touch by phone, with holiday cards and birthday greetings. The family can sense that “Grandma” is changing, but aren’t fully aware of the scope. Her home of 50 years had become too much to handle, and at age 92 she just didn’t have the energy or desire anymore to keep up with the daily details. But, she had taken to hiding her valuable throughout the home in ‘safe places’, like her pearls. Just in case.
She had recently been moved into a rehab center to recover from respiratory distress. With her permission, her nephew called and asked us to assess her home and put together a plan for organizing, heavy-duty cleaning, and scheduling the Super do some repairs to make her home safe for her return from rehab. And, to locate the valuables she hid. When we arrived, there was very little room to move around. We spent the first couple of days just removing obvious recycling and discards so our team had space to work. As we sorted and sifted through her personal items, we got a clear sense of how she organized things. She, like many, had her own way of categorizing and methods for keeping track of things. We followed her system as best as we could. As we worked, we turned everything inside out and upside down. We searched under the bottom side of drawers, behind paintings, inside cereal boxes. We found a lot of cash, Bearer Bonds, many savings account books, Deeds, birth/marriage/death certificates, Uncle Jack’s military honors. No pearls. Natalie, a long-time crew member, has unusually sharp visual memory and keen sense of spaces. Towards the end of our clearance work in this large family house of 50+ years, she was gathering up all coat hangers, metal, wood and those puffy, quilt covered ones. One pink hanger didn’t feel right. She squeezed it and realized it wasn’t like the others. Bumps. In a row. Natalie carefully opened the satin cloth. A tiny, shiny round ball. Then, a lot of tiny, shiny round balls. On a string! A string of pearls! Grandma’s pearls!! FOUND. The daughter was thrilled! So was Natalie. So were we all. Phew!
