What's the weirdst thing you found when someone died?

[ferriswheel]

I was thinking of writing a diary. Something to help me figure out why i sabotage my weight loss success and why i tolerated the bad behaviour of my husband for so long.

I dont at all expect anything untoward happening to me but the idea of my inner most thoughts being read by whoever...

Anyway, have you ever found anything that you shouldnt have, but had to deal with because of the circumstances?

How the hell do you home-make a bu-- nevermind, not sure I want to know!

When my grandfather died among his most prized possessions were the pin-up pics my grandmother took and sent him while he was overseas fighting in the war. In reality, it’s just her wearing a one-piece bathing suit with a little extra makeup on but they were considered “scandalous” at the time, I guess. They are framed in our home now, as a duo with my grandfather’s posed photo in his service uniform. It makes me happy to see the photos of them when they were so young and in love.

A knee length hand knitted Dennis the menace jumper. Sleeves just as long.

I found my mum's adoption certificate. I knew she'd been adopted etc but it was the date...she was nine. I always assumed she'd been adopted as a baby but clearly there was a chunk of her childhood I knew nothing about. I also found 41 bars of Imperial Leather soap, she always stored a bar of soap in and around clothes/blankets/linen that was being stored and we had quite a hoard of them once we'd cleared her house. I've always loved that soap so kept every bar and I have some of DD's baby blankets up our loft in a old suitcase with IP soap in.

My Dads parents had both died before he & Mum got married so I never knew them, just saw a few photos etc - after Dad died & sorting through his many collections of impt stuff, I found about 6 letters that both his parents had written to him at different times. Just domestic stuff & how they were etc but such real treasures. This was in the late 1940's I think as Dad had returned from WW2 & was working away from where they lived. Even my Mum had never known about them, so was totally happy to have seen letters they had written with such love to my Dad.

I found a photo of me where I’m about 8 where my dad had written “the little devil” on the back. I’m pretty sure it was in jest!

A box of newspapers. Several years after DDad died DM moved house to a different part of the country and we (i’m 1 of 4 dc) helped her have a big clear out.

We found a wooden tea chest in the cellar, which hadn’t been unpacked from 3 house moves ago, over 20 years earlier. It was old papers. The realised that there were some verh personal to DDad - those which had our birth announcements in, a copy of the Daily Telegraph which had the results of DMs Bar Finals and the announcement of my sister’s birth . Then digging down we found historically important dates and headlines - VE Day, the Normandy Landings. The queen’s coronation and that of George 6th. First man on the Moon, the oldest being about the Boer War. Then one which looked unremarkable, until we found, on the tiny blank space on the back that the printers used to keep for late news,“JFK shot”.

Love letters and little cards from my mum, from before they were married. By the time Dad died they'd been divorced over 30 years.

This is a great thread - thanks OP - I have nothing to add but am motivated now to clean house “just in case”

@youngscrappyandhungry I love your story!

It makes me sad reading this to think that I will probably be the last generation in my family to be likely to find anything like this when my DF passes because for my DS and generations after him none of these things will exist.

No letters, no photos, no postcards - everything is digital/electronic

@Puffycat ,I know exactly what you mean. I have my grandmother's scarf.
I suggest you seal some in bags for when you need that scent in a few years as unfortunately it does fade.

Reading this, makes me think of my nans "treasure".
Basically, the task of clearing out the house fell to my uncle. He found a largish horde of investment gold coins at the back of the wardrobe neatly folded into some old underwear... He was in the process of bagging up the "stacked" piles of clothing when one dropped out! Overall there was about 40k worth of coins dating from 50's - 70's. My uncle kindly shared them between us grandchildren ... now I have a stash of gold coins hidden at the back of my wardrobe neatly folded into my old knickers and bras....

When cleaning out my stepdads flat after he died last year my brother (his bio son) came across a folder of hand drawn painting and pictures - all of or by me. and 1 for my brother too. Inside each one he had written a poem about our names.

My mum met him when I was 6 and we had a very turbulent relationship throughout the years, I grew up and realised he was the best person in my life and was a true father so i'm glad we have some good memories, but the fact he'd kept all that stuff makes me feel sad for the way I treated him as a child and teenager. Wow, thanks OP, you've got me bawling now

When my grandad died, my dad and his brothers cleared out his flat. They found three birth certificates for him. All with different names and dates of birth. We don't know if our "surname" was genuine at all.

We always knew my grandad had a back story, his mum was unmarried and was forced to up-sticks from Scotland and ended up in London so a false surname wouldn't be unusual.

Nothing too weird, but when we sorted mum's clothes and handbags out to give to the charity shop we found tissues and nail files in everything.
I always seem to have a tissue with me so I guess I learnt that from mum.
And her nails were always lovely so I guess the key to that was always having a nail file to hand

When my grandad died found their marriage certificate and they were married a year later than they had told everyone meaning my mum was actually born before the wedding.

A nest of fieldmice (eek) and a sawn off shotgun (okaaaaaaaaaay...um, what the..?) Also about eleventy billion used cigarette lighters. That was a weekend to forget.

My DGD has hoarded bags of sugar in his wardrobe when he died, and jars of coffee. I think there was a shortage at some point so grandpa was determined to be prepared! There was also piles of cash (he had £3k in his wallet) - another who didn’t trust banks.

Wow what a great thread, some stories on here. I love the grandad getting rid of his playboy mags!
FrangipaniBlue it's so true what you say about things being digital now. I do still have letters from friends/family from when I was at uni in the early 90s - just before email and we all used to write to each other all the time, but that's it really. Emails etc just not the same as when someone's physically touched a letter, had it in their pocket or whatever. There's so much more feeling tied up in that, IMO.

A hand grenade. With the pin still in.

A bundle of letters that pointed to the existence of a secret, adopted half brother.

Not when someone died but in the loft of my house when I moved in. Vintage pornography, dozens of books on the Third Reich and mini surveillance cameras! I'm wondering what to add to the collection when I leave.

A house! A relative turned out to have another house that we didn't know about, when we went there it was as if they had just gone out and never returned - the electricity was on, post on the table and water in the kettle.

DM's wedding flowers from 76 years before, folded into a newspaper from the day they were married and all crumbly with time.

And a vintage copy of the Kama Sutra. DDs were hysterical,