Sometimes You Get Lucky and Sometimes You Don't

My husband's Aunt Evvie got him started in genealogy and family history at a young age. Aunt Evvie was his grandfather's sister and she was the keeper of the family photos and treasures. When hubs was a teenager, she gave him many of the Massey and Sandercock photos.

Aunt Evvie is long gone but her husband Mac is still alive. A few months ago my husband went to visit Mac.While visiting, Mac showed him items that had once belonged to hubs' ancestors - among them an antique Carriage clock from the Massey house and a set of dishes that belonged to hubs' great-grandfather Sam Sandercock. During the visit Mac gave my husband a few small items including Sam's mustache cup.

Hubs' planned to return but soon after the visit Mac fell ill and was taken to the hospital. He did not recover enough to go back to his home and was sent to a nursing home. Mac called an auctioneer and gave instructions to put everything in his house up for sale. Unfortunately no one in the family, including my husband, knew about the auction. Mac's very elderly and also blind so letting family know would not have occurred to him.

And so it is all gone - everything was sold and my husband found out when it was too late. He would have been the first one there to buy some of the family items. It seems such a shame that these items have now passed out of family hands into the hands of strangers who know nothing of the people that once owned and treasured them. Hubs doesn't blame Mac, but he is saddened to think he missed out on keeping the items in the Massey family.