My mom and dad recently had their Super Incredible Mega Yard Sale in Manchester, Tenn. They do a massive cleanout every year or so and sell the results at the Ponderosa, their farm on nearby Old Tullahoma Highway where my dad grows nursery stock and my mom has her antique “shed” — it’s smaller than a shop.”  They did most of the toting and packing and moving things around, but I helped a little bit — mainly by telling customers, “I’m not sure what that is. Let’s ask my mom!” Anyway, the weather was perfect and we had so much fun, especially when my daughter and son-in-law brought Cutest Baby Ever up from Huntsville, Ala., for a visit. And I loved watching my parents in action! My mom knows her antiques, and she arranges things so creatively: Linens in an old suitcase, plates in a dish drainer. Everything in the sale had a story, from the wooden lobster trap they brought back from Maine (“They don’t make them like this anymore,” my mom said. “They’re all plastic now.”) to my grandmother’s decades-old mixer — which my mom sold to a young woman who seemed to appreciate it. But it wasn’t all selling. My dad met a couple tractor collectors, which led to deep conversations about … well, tractor stuff. And he also ended up giving away some bed railings that weren’t even in the sale to a woman who was helping a disabled friend of hers set up housekeeping. Profits from the two-day sale were only about $250, but I took away much more than the $15 I got for some pots and pans.

This is where I was when I found out my younger daughter had mono — and I had shared her soup and sandwich at lunch earlier that week. Yikes! She already was feeling better by the time she got her diagnosis but of course I convinced myself that I was feeling worse. Read about the happy ending at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20081010/ARTICLES/810100302