Now on to Trenton, New Jersey and my relatives.

Here we are entering New Jersey.  Part of this trip is so we could take care of some business.
I will be explaining more at the end of this post.

  Don't you just love to see the old fashioned daylilies along the roadside?

One of the fun things I got to do was meet up with some of my cousins.
Sometimes you have a family, that doesn't communicate very well.  You know, the one person that always kept the family together, is no longer there.  Relatives move, life gets in the way.  Unfortunately, that is what has happen with mine.
My grandmother Bagley, was our glue.  I remember the family get togethers at the holidays, the picnics in the summer. We all live kind of near each other.  My parents and sister and I moved to Michigan, when I was in second grade.
My parents saw to it that we got back to visit every summer for at least a week.
On the brighter note, these are my cousins.  Obviously, way younger then me.
I met Diane, the young lady on the far left 4 years ago for the first time.  She is a teacher and has 3 wonderful children.  One of them graduated this year from high school.  Susan the next one, I had met when she was a very little girl.  Now she is all grown up and running for a council seat in the district where she lives.  The third young lady, is the daughter of an older cousin of mine. Sharon has a lovely daughter, who I thought had entered college, and found out she is 15 and in high school.  We all got together on evening for dinner.  We laughed, and talked and had such a wonderful evening.  We have decided we have got to get together again.  I am going to have to come back to Trenton again.  When I do, I want to see if some of our other relatives can join us and make up for lost time. Keep your fingers crossed.

Another row, from the quilt shop in Pennington, New Jersey.

Now for the story of why we came to Trenton.  In May my Father's sister, Mary Agnes passed away.  She had been in a nursing home for several years with Parkinson's disease.  I am co-executor of her estate.  She would have turned 80 on the 20th of June. I knew going into this that she was a possible hoarder.
We had to get into the house and find the valuables she had told me were there.  I was in hopes of recovering old photos and certificates that would be records for our family history from Hungary.
We did have to get a locksmith to change the lock, as none of the keys we had would open the door.
The front windows and door had been boarded up.
This is what we were met with when we finally opened the door.
We knew the utilities had been turned off.  We could not believe what we found.
The whole house had been tossed.  The copper piping had been torn out of the walls.  Furniture had been taken, and if there had been any valuables, they were long gone.
This was a row house in a not great part of town, and was a total disaster.  

This was the scene on the third floor. I have cried and feel so very sad.  How could people do this kind of thing.  We checked with the police, and this was no surprise to them.  We have no idea when this was done.  It was probably several years ago.  They said, that once vandals realize a house has been abandoned, it becomes fair game.  They break in and look for drugs, and of course valuables.  Every box,  cupboard, and drawer had been opened and turned upside down.  

We did spend about 4 hours total, over two days trying to go through the trash.  I was hoping to be able to recover at least some pictures.  We did.  On the third floor we had some luck with finding some pictures, and embroidered linens that my aunts would have done.  After we got home I will take pictures of some of the things we did find..
I am sure my aunt would be horrified if she knew this.  I will let you use your imagination on what other things the person or persons did to the house.  It was not nice to say the least.
I am going to have to come back at some time in the next couple months. I doubt we will be able to sell the house.  May have to let the city take it.  

Ironically, the house is in this "Historic Trenton".  Think someone got their areas mixed up.

Ron is closing the house back up.  While we were there the postman saw up, and asked if we were moving in or out.  When we told him what had happened, he said he was not surprised.  It happens all over where there are deserted homes.  So, I guess this is a lesson.  Don't leave homes vacant.
What was to be an adventure, turned out to be not so.
We still have some things to take care of, so will be here for a few more days.
Talk later,
Mary