Neighbor update and a good deed as yet unpunished

Last Easter Sunday, our neighbor at the coast who had been feeling a little poorly, woke up jaundiced, and by the end of a long day found out she likely (and later confirmed) had Pancreatic cancer. Even before that, she had planned on selling her house and moving to Southern California because the annuity she was living on had been decimated by a local swindler, and she could no longer afford her mortgage. (No fault of hers, the money was given to a local state college and THEY trusted this a-hole)

She is in a clinical trial in Southern California now, and although she was assigned the standard chemo treatment, she seems to be doing well. It wasn't that long ago that Pancreatic cancer was "How long do I have? 2 or 3 weeks?"

The weekend before last there was an estate sale. My BIL & SIL have an estate sale company. They had a very successful 2 day sale despite a wildfire that closed the main road out to the coast from Saturday afternoon until Monday midday. There was also a cliff rescue a block away Saturday afternoon and a motorcycle accident (broken leg) on Sunday. Both times people came running up to the houses Yelling "Call 911!) The problem was that the fire had taken out the phone lines. By Sunday we were able to directly call the fire station but not outside the local area.

So meanwhile I had talked to a friend who told me about doing this with her father and the sales just covered the cost of hauling off the leftovers. This made me think about having a 2nd sale this last Saturday for the leftovers, and saving the cost of the cleanup.

The neighbors were fantastic, both in helping run the sale and in buying things, often paying more than the asking price or rounding up the total. We made over $800 but still have a few things we'll try to sell on Craigslist. The rest will be donated in her name so she can use the receipts as tax deductions.