Preferred Stock

So many things had been lost as of late. There was the theft that had occurred at her storage unit. Then the hurricane. Finally, the theft at her apartment in the midst of her trying to move out.

         So many personal things lost for the various reasons. So many memories damaged and destroyed. So many losses. She couldn’t even list them all. 

         The first and biggest loss, of course, had been the death of her husband. That had been a year ago, and since then things had not improved. She had lost her home, her car, and her dog prior to the thefts and the hurricane.

         Thankfully, her son was able to help her move her salvageable items from her apartment. It was back breaking work and she was grateful to both her son and his friends for all of the help.

         So many of her memories of her husband were lost in the theft. What she had left was now having to go in storage. Home videos, pictures, even his funeral wreath. Of the losses from the storage building theft, their ornaments for every year that they had been together. It was devastating and heartbreaking, to say the least. 

         She had no idea where she would live or how long her remaining belongings would have to remain in yet another storage facility. She missed her husband terribly, but with all the goings on, she didn’t even really have time to think about him that much.

         When it came time to unload, they discovered that some drawer units had fallen over in the back of the truck, spilling the contents everywhere. The people that were helping her move decided that the best thing to do would be to pick it up as they got to it.

         The unloading took a long time. Everyone was tired and they had to figure out how to place things in the unit. Little by little, the spilled items were collected and placed back into drawers in the units. 

         More and more items were unloaded, and as they were some mold and water damage was discovered on items that they had originally thought were okay. This discouraged her even more and she was feeling emotional. 

         Watching her possessions being piled into storage or, even worse, being tossed into a dumpster was hard. Knowing that the punks that had robbed her other storage unit had probably done the same thing with most of her personal possessions in there hurt her heart even more.

         She watched the boxes and furniture being removed from the truck. She knew which ones had pictures in them. There were canvas paintings related to her husband’s death in this box. There were family pictures in that one. The next one contained a wooden painting of her and her husband with their three grandkids.

         Each box and each piece of furniture meant something to her. Each one held some sort of sentimental value. It had been suggested that she throw a lot of these things away. Other people couldn’t see the value of these items the way she could. It wasn’t even really something she could explain to make them understand. It just was. They would just have to understand.

         More and more loose items were picked up as they made their way to the back of the truck. There were the pool sticks that she and her husband had used to play pool. They had owned their own pool table and had enjoyed it immensely, but sadly it had been damaged in the hurricane and had to be thrown away. Her large king size bookcase headboard with the roses embossed on the mirror and glass doors was also ruined. This was the bed she and her husband had shared for most of their marriage.

         As she watched the shelves that her husband had made to hold their dvd collection get unloaded, they too invoked memories and feelings. Seeing what was saved made her sad in a different way. Seeing what was saved made it even more obvious what she had lost.

         She watched the nineteen boxes of dvds that they had collected over the years being placed in storage. She watched all of her clothing, which had either molded or smelled like mold, being dropped off at her mother’s house. The uncertainty of what would actually be able to be saved tore at her heart. 

         There had been a full box of shirts that had belonged to her husband that was ruined in the hurricane. Also, a box of shirts that held special meaning to her and that she wanted to make a blanket out of was lost.

         Again, she thought of all of the loss that she had been forced to face and deal with over the last year. She thought of the violation that the robberies had made her feel. She remembered the deep sadness of having to leave her home and of losing her beloved dog and knowing that he was put down with no one who loved him around. She remembered the fear she had felt on the lone, dark road the night she totaled her car and didn’t know where she was.

         The closer they got to the end of the unloading, the more of the loose items they were able to recover from the floor. She watched as they gathered up her scattered property. Some was unimportant – push pins, a box of staples.

         One of the people helping held up an old bottle of cologne. He wanted to know if he could just throw it away, considering it was almost empty. How could he possibly know the treasure that he had just found? How could he possibly know that the nearly empty bottle of cologne was such an important connection for her?

         She reached out for the bottle, knowing that no one else could understand. Knowing that they would probably think she was completely and totally insane. She stared in silence at the little, tiny bottle. She took a deep breath and oh so slowly she began to twist off the lid. Once it was opened, she slowly lifted it to her nose and inhaled the scent. Immediately tears began to stream down her face. It was her late husband’s bottle of Preferred Stock cologne and it smelled exactly like him.