THE ALBUM

It has been more than three years since my cancer surgery. 

I am doing as well as can be expected, I suppose. Though everyone kept saying that I was doing wonderfully. 

I am deformed. I cannot seem to gain any weight. I have trouble eating . . .

On the other hand, 

I am alive. I can get around on my own, with the help of a walker, if I have to walk far. I have my pains and aches, my allergy, and a few other little problems. I, sometime, have small memory lapses - not too major. I make little notes to remind myself of anything that I needed to remember,

On the plus side, I can still read without wearing glasses. I can still paint. I can still do a little jewelry-making. And play some card games with my friends at the Conservatory.

Where I live, there are a number of people who have far more serious health issues than this 94-year old woman.

So, I said to myself, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start living."

Cleaning out the closets is one of the things that I needed to do. So here goes - get rid of the stuff and clothes that I have not used for the last few years . . .  I do hang on to most of my artworks, done by me or by someone-else. 

There were some of the things I have forgotten that I had . . .

Then, one day, I saw an Ad in the paper - a fairly large colored one - with a green jade bottle perched on a teak stand, a white jade bowl, resembling a flower, a tall cloisonne enamel vase, all sitting on a rosewood? table, against a painting of branches of red persimmon fruits. The large dark-green leaves made the fruits redder even.

"Bring your Chinese Art to us

 We'll sell it to the world"

Call . . . 

I thought to myself, may be the third time is charm.

I have some nice Chinese paintings and some objects of art. Amongst them, an album of 8 Chinese ink paintings on gold paper, done a long time ago.

The first time, many years ago, I wrote to a famous auction house, offering the album of paintings to sell. They never answered my letter.

The second time, my second daughter and her patient husband took me and the Album to the Antique Road Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The specialist looked at it, and said that it may be worth three or four thousand dollars. I disagreed. The paintings were exquisite and I liked them. Besides, they were close to 300-year-old. I can read the Chinese wording, names and dates and the stories told. 

So, the album went into the closet and then it came with me to the senior-living place when I moved here over six-years ago. It stayed in the closet all this time. 

Since the children did not want it, may be I should sell it. Let someone else enjoy it. 

Is it time to sell it?

I waited and pondered the thought for a few days. Then I picked up the phone and called the number in the ad.