It was late Sunday afternoon and my cell phone rang. On the other end of the line was an elderly woman who needed quite a few boxes removed from her attic. She and her husband were relocating to North Carolina shortly. Their children had recently travelled from around the country to take whatever they wanted from the house and help clear out what they didn’t. The children returned to their respective cities only to find out a month later that no one had bothered to check the attic. Her 85-year-old husband made daily trips up the steep stairs to try to bring down boxes that were so old, they would crumble as you picked them up from the floor. I had just released my crew for the day, and told her as much. She pleaded with me to come right away. Her husband was obsessed with the items left in the attic. She was afraid that he would hurt or kill himself trying to negotiate those stairs with a handful of boxed junk. She was further afraid that he would so drive her to distraction that she might just kill him herself .

Already exhausted, I reluctantly accepted the task and headed over to the house, where I proceeded to bring down the boxes and other miscellaneous items in the attic for the next two hours. They were very appreciative and she thanked me again and again for “saving” him. The next morning, in a rush to offload the material at the recycling center, I hurriedly grabbed one of the fragile old boxes and the bottom promptly dropped out, emptying the contents onto the floor of the truck. In the pile was an Army Air Corp aviator’s cap. I tossed in on the front seat of the truck and continued my day. I later called the wife and asked if she wanted this beat-up old cap. Her excitement was evident and she asked that I bring it as soon as I could. Apparently, she had met her now husband in 1942, and they’d married just before he shipped out to Europe to duke it out with the enemy. He wanted to give the cap to his grandson but never could seem to find it. When I returned and handed the precious cap to the husband, he teared up. My eyes got a little watery too. I think it was a dusty day.