Growing up, I (32) lived with my elderly grandma. Long story short, she was from Maine and was diagnosed with cancer. She begged to go home and be with her siblings so I, being 15 at the time, made all the calls I could to make this happen. Her brother and sister picked us up and took all our stuff to their homes and properties in Maine. It was really painful being taken away from all I had known. I, being a traumatized kid, decided to go back to my hometown and finish out my senior year of high school after my grandma passed, surrounded by the people who she loved most. My family told me that they would bring my stuff (great uncle was a trucker) “next time he heads South”. I knew he drove to Florida at least 3 times a year, so I just trusted it.
I never saw most of it or them again. I’ve reached out a little on Facebook but nothing else. A friend of mine met my aunt and brought a few things when he took a trip to Maine shortly after I made it home and snagged some family photo albums for me so I do still have those and am grateful for it, but this basically only happened because I begged for them. She had told me that it was too much of a hassle to get anything from my uncle’s.
As silly as it sounds, I was passionate about one thing growing up: Pokemon. I collected the toys, cards, and games and had a slew of original stuff. It went with me to Maine. There was too much to travel back with and I was just a kid, I couldn’t afford it. I’ve just always wondered what happened to it.
I have started to collect again, cause my love never went away but I always beat myself up over not following up to see if I could get my stuff back from my great uncle. I just found out he sold his restaurant, which is where they told me to keep my stuff until my great aunt traveled south again. Is it still at the Offshore now that my uncle sold it? Had they rotted away or flooded off years ago? Did he pawn my little family’s things off because he needed the money, hoped I forgot, or thought it wouldn’t matter to a child who already lost everything? I just wish I knew.