How Do I Let Go of This Stuff?

I've known for years that I have ADD. Now I'm finding I also have APAD:

Aluminum Pan Attachment Disorder.

My sweet little mom died last June. She was 93. She lived a wonderful life and left us with so many heartwarming memories, life lessons. . .and aluminum pans.

I don't believe in aluminum pans. Did you know they've been linked to Alzheimer's?Okay, so the Alzheimer's Association says it's a myth, but can we really believe them? I'm a bit of a health nut--occasionally crossing the line into health nut case--which is why I switched to glass cookware several years ago.

So my mom dies and I inherit her pans. Pans I will never use, but which hold precious memories of from-scratch baked beans, clam chowder, barbecue, lime jello with pineapple and cottage cheese, and the best chuck roasts and gravy in the whole world. Oh, and Christmas plum pudding. How can I let go of the pans I learned to cook with? And the scenes attached to them that attach me to my past?

Sure, I could bless someone else with them, but what kind of a person would donate a potentially-dementia-causing pan to charity?

To really see the ridiculousness of my problem you need to take a close look at this picture. See the little green stickers? Those were put there by my mom when we had a garage sale to get rid of things she didn't want to cart along to the retirement center. They didn't sell (maybe because I hid them under the card table). But she let go of it all, so why can't I??

I'm beginning to see why I've found my writing niche in contemporary stories with a historical thread. Seeing reflections of the past in the events of today is not just a passion -- it's an illness.

Help! Anybody have a cure for APAD? How do you let go??

9 Comments to How Do I Let Go of This Stuff?:

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Cathe on Saturday, May 19, 2012 6:44 PM

I like the part about the garage sale. I have a few things like that, and as I get older, I become more willing to hang on to things that are special to me and not get rid of them just because someone else thinks they are junk and clutter. I would probably hang onto the jello mold (Never made a jello mold in my life, but they work nicely for ice rings for punch bowls.) Keep what makes you smile. Maybe someday you can show it to a granddaughter and tell her all about her great-grandma's cooking!

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	Becky Melby on Sunday, May 20, 2012 7:18 AM Thanks, Cathe. I LOVE the "Keep what makes you smile" line. As long as I don't smile too often!!

Delores Liesner on Saturday, May 19, 2012 9:53 PM

OR if your kitchen decor will handle it, choose your favorites, paint the bottoms of the pans in one color, and write the favorite recipe on the colored bottoms. A great display of memories and recipes. The cookie sheets or other flat pans can become magnet boards for the grandchildren. Just add magnetic letters, numbers, words or pictures (especially if you have family at a distance you'd like the little one to know when they visit once or twice a year). If your kitchen would not hold the display, then paint, add the recipe and take a picture of it for a small photo-album size recipe book of Grandma's favorites. Then you can sell the decorated pots and pans with a clear conscience and someone else can decorate their kitchen!


	Becky Melby on Sunday, May 20, 2012 7:15 AM What fun ideas, Delores! Now you've got me thinking!

Anne Connors on Sunday, May 20, 2012 11:57 AM

I am laughing at your Aluminum pans! Wroking at a resale shop thi s winter, so many came in to be resold.So many people would pick them up and have sotries of Grandmas casseroles and their favorite Thanksgiving Dinners. So many know of the dangers in cooking with aluminum now, yet many grabbed them up just to have in thier cupboards for sentimental moments. I'm packing up for the move to PA and I just cant let go of my 200 bottles of nail polish...Will I or won't I continue painting? Each transition, god calls us to new things. PS Cant wait to read the new series!!! Love you!

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Marie A. Jacobson on Friday, June 01, 2012 6:56 PM

Thanks, Becky. Reading about your "APAD" struck me so funny that I've been getting lots of great, healthy belly laughs from it! I really needed that. I think, in the back of your mind somewhere, there's this verse: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine " ----Prov. 17:22a.


	Becky Melby on Friday, June 01, 2012 8:10 PM If my ridiculous attachment to old stuff can make someone laugh, that's a wonderful thing!! See--God doesn't waste anything!!

Linda on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 2:40 PM

In order to appease your APAD: When all the kids are expected over, leave the bag of aluminum pots & pans by the door. Temporarily, forget they're there and have a great time with family in the meantime. Later when you get to the door, the pans won't be on your mind because one of the kids (anonymous) has put them in their car, where the pans will be off to their new adventure. If this doesn't work, start wrapping, gifting and regifting between the family and in unique and interesting ways sot that pans spend a year with who ever got them that year;}


	Becky Melby on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 3:37 PM I love both ideas! We always have a white elephant exchange with family at Christmas. Some poor, unsuspecting person is going to unwrap a great big box of aluminum!! Thank you, Linda.

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