Chapter 2 Suitcase

My grandparents loved to travel. Before they got married my grandmother backpacked through Europe with some of her dearest friends and together my grandparents went to Germany, England, Ireland, Cuba, Spain, the list goes on and on. Even after my grandfather passed Grandma went to South America and The United States numerous times. With all this travel came the need for reliable suitcases. Some of the more retro pieces were given to my brother’s partner soon after my grandmother passed and now there were 7 or 8 larger, more modern suitcases that needed to find homes. We decided we would try to sell one first and if things went well we would sell the others as well. Spoiler Alert: we only sold one suitcase.

The suitcase we were selling had made numerous trips over the years. Many of them to Cuba. Before I sold the suitcase I checked the pockets one last time and found the tiniest pink shell. My grandma never swam but you could often find her on the beach digging for seashells so she could bring a little piece of paradise home with her. My grandparents would go to Cuba once a year and always loved it. They raved about the climate and the beaches. They were always happy with the food and drinks. They loved it. Anyways, here I go selling another family memory. Even though the suitcase was in outstanding condition, it wasn’t very popular. No one wanted to pay asking price for it and generally gave me aggressively low offers, even though I was selling it at a jaw-dropping discount. Eventually I had a buyer who was willing to come on a Sunday. The buyer never really showed up:

4:45 pm - Buyer: Hello, I found the street but I can’t find the house
4:46 pm – Me: Oh no! Would you like me to come stand out front so you can find it
4:46 pm – Buyer: No. I cold. Time to go home.
4:47 pm – Me: Okay well I’m right in the driveway you should be able to see me
4:47 pm – Buyer: Bus
4:47 pm – Me: Oh you took the bus?
4:48 pm – Me: If you’re at the bus stop I am right down the hill
4:58 pm – Buyer: Please stop, I am waiting for you here and you can bring it to me
4:58 pm – Me: I am really sorry, I have other people coming today and I can’t leave
4:58 pm – Buyer: I am already away on the bus, no thanks

Confused and annoyed with that conversation I relisted the suitcase and quickly had another few deals fall through. Most of these failed deals were due to scheduling conflicts, it was hard to believe we were in the middle of a pandemic when everyone was going somewhere. One buyer was headed to Africa in 6 hours and needed the suitcase ASAP, another was headed to India and needed the suitcase on the Friday but could only meet at 10 pm. A few Sunday’s later I was waiting for the final buyer of the suitcase to come for pickup and I got a message from the first buyer asking if she could come and try to find the house again, when I declined (because my new buyer was on the way) they explained to me that they had never actually showed up the first time, and that they “just didn’t know” if they still wanted the suitcase. Why was I even surprised? I stood out in the driveway in below zero temperatures for 24 minutes – and they didn’t even bother to get on the bus to come collect their goods. The next weekend, I filled the rest of the suitcases up with clothing to donate. Over the months we spent selling and cleaning out the house, we made countless trips to donate items. We took the nice clothing items to places for people entering the workplace who couldn’t afford business clothes, we took the colder weather items to homeless shelters who were looking for jackets, hats and gloves, I took suitcases and duffle bags filled to the brim with kitchen gadgets, home accessories and shoes to donation centers across the city. It felt good to help out those in need, I didn’t like taking donation items in garbage bags. It felt nicer to take them in bags that others could use too. It also felt pretty great to know that I would never have to deal with selling another suitcase ever again.