After a moderately expected death this past week, I have begun processing my mother’s belongings.

Reflections on the emptying of her purse:

1.  Chinese fortune cookie papers — true fortunes:  you will soon meet the person you desire.  –advice:  don’t be fooled by first impressions;  you should be able to undertake and complete anything.  —the joke:  42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
2. Driver’s License (Kentucky).  Not only is the picture not flattering, my mother appears downright sad, as if she knew this would be her final picture I.D.
3. a never activated Target debit card.  My mother never owed a thing in her life — when we attempted to apply for a home equity loan toward the end of her life in order to pay medical bills, I learned for the first time that it is possible to not have a credit score.  Not a bad credit score.  No score at all.
4. an HHgregg $300.00 gift card.  Never heard of the place.  Will look up online, see if the card is still good.
5. The obligatory frequent flyer cards:  Peebles, Kroger, Fazoli’s, Barnes & Noble, Walgreens
6. It goes on.  Social Security, Medicare, corneal lens implant ID card, library card
7. Miscellaneous scraps of paper with people’s name, numbers, addresses.  Sometimes numbers without names or addresses.  I don’t recognize most of them and I have to believe in the end my mother wouldn’t have either.
8. 66 cents change.
9. A checkbook register without a checkbook.  We had to take away the checkbook when my mother began writing rubber checks and also withdrawing large amounts of cash just so she could have spending money on hand (by large I mean up to half of her monthly income)

My mother guarded this with her life.  She didn’t carry a purse, just this wallet.  What this meant is that we were continuously hunting for the thing, both at home and outdoors.

Reflections will continue.