Just over six years ago, one of my friends at university asked for a favour: she was in the final stages of her PhD writeup, but had to return to her home country for six months, before returning to submit her thesis and have her viva. She asked if she could leave two medium-sized bags with me for the time being (full of clothes mainly, but other odd bits of crockery). I accepted - it was only to be a few months, and we were in a flat at the time that was had a lot of extra storage so it wasn't a burden. She was a decent friend - not massively close, but still. She also left about 7 or 8 other bags with another girl at university (I know because I dropped her off to the girl's house and helped moved the stuff).
A few months on and our tenancy wasn't renewed, and we had to move to a tiny flat with no space. I asked my mum if I could keep the bags in her double garage conversion, where she has stored all kinds of stuff from years ago - children's clothes, random things picked up from charity ships, and whatnot. Not to say that I took her agreement lightly, but she can easily go a year without stepping in there, so I didn't think it would be a massive burden. (Although, she when she does step foot inside, she likes to do lots of rearranging and tidying...) She reluctantly agreed.
In the meantime, nothing from my friend. Had messaged her once on fb but no reply. Two years after she'd deposited the stuff, I messaged again telling her to please find a way of collecting it asap as it was taking up a fair bit of room. She said her father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, that it had thrown he PhD r submission plans awry..that if I had no other way, please not to get rid of the stuff but she could arrange storage for them. But asking me to hold on a little longer. So I passed on this story to my mum and she sighed, but said fine.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, my mum re-entered the garage this summer after a two year long hiatus and chucked everything out. Opened the bags, took all the clothes to rags recycling, and said it was my fault for not being decisive enough and taking action. Which I guess it is. I still wish she'd told me though just beforehand.
AIBU? (yes for being a weakling) Do you think 'friend' will ever get in touch to salvage her old clothing?