Dear Annie: My grandmother died 15 years ago and left me all of her journals because she thought I would treasure them. There are more than 200 of them sitting in 20 boxes in my parent’s garage. I have read through a couple, but am not interested in the rest and don’t think I ever will be. I would like to dispose of them, but I feel guilty about it.
My parents are moving soon and will no longer have room to store the journals. No one else in the family wants them. I do not think a historical society would have any interest, because they are rather boring. More important, my grandmother wrote about personal situations of family and friends that are not for public consumption.
Everyone thinks I should have them professionally shredded. I don’t want to destroy an irreplaceable historical record that was entrusted to me, but I can’t deal with these journals anymore. I wish they had never existed.
Are there any other options? -Rachel in San Francisco
Dear Rachel:
You ungrateful brat, why don’t you move your ego over and make room for your grandmother’s heart and soul poured out onto paper. If you don’t want to look at them get a lock box at the bank and store them there for your children’s children. Get your head out of your ass. -Jenny
Would anyone like to add anything?
4 comments:
Ohmygawd. That's terrible. I can't imagine not being interested in something like that. I'd be doing nothing but reading for months.
This is the saddest part: "My grandmother... left me all of her journals because she thought I would treasure them." Then she calls them "boring" and says she can't deal with them.
What's unsaid: "I wish she'd just left me cash instead."
Damn girl. I'd give ANYTHING to have journals from my grandmother.
I hang on to a little snippet of paper found in my Grandmother's jewelery box - it says "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. - Mark Twain". I keep it like gold and she didn't even write it, she just clipped it out of the paper and taped it in the box.
The letter doesn't say how old this Rachel is. When I was younger, I probably would have thought storing 20 boxes of journals was a pain. But now that I'm older, I feel the same way Nancy does. I would love to be able to read how my Grandma survived the Depression, or how her father operated an illegal bar in Detroit during Prohibition.
Rachel should skim through the journals and then scan some of the pages that aren't boring.
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