We learnt that the previous couple were born in Bavaria and that they named the property, The Bavarian Hut with large white letters on a timber frame at the entrance. They bought the property formerly a tea house and continued to serve tea and scones while she seemed to live for her painting. Eerily, evidence of this was everywhere and brightly coloured child like paintings filled the rooms. Once I had removed the masses of oil paintings together with a macabre life size rag doll complete with adult clothing, I felt I may have the strength to complete the enormous tidy up. Maybe I had been watching too much television on renovation projects!
I asked neighbours if there was anyone who may like the paintings because it was apparent that the two adult sons were going to leave most of the items. One lived in Germany and the other in Northern New South Wales. I had hoped that the place would be cleaned up even slightly before we took it over but the house remained neglected with the dirty dishes still left in the sink and chaos everywhere. Unemptied suitcases and boxes stood while we tried to grasp and prioritise our steps before starting to renovate. Eventually I put the paintings in a pile in the garage hoping that someone from her family or one of her friends would claim them. It seemed very sad to me that no one wanted them...
My thoughts jumped to South Africa where I visited after my own mother died and left behind her personal possesions. I remembered the nostalgia I felt when carefully touching my mother's hand embroided cloths. She had sewn most of them in East Africa where she sat in the heat with a wet handkerchief in her hands working the fine thread expertly. Each flower was delicately woven and worked seamlessly. The difference was that both my brother and I wanted the cloths that reminded us of her although I knew that both of us may not ever actually use them and they would be put away carefully in a chest or at the back of a cupboard.
Going through a heavily painted sideboard, I was shocked to find a death certificate of the previous owner and later I found out that he had died suddenly in a road accident in which no one else was involved. Apparently he had a heart attack and left his wife living alone at the Bavarian Hut. She lived there apparently on her own for months until her neighbours were able to stay with her for short periods of time.
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