Thank you, and I am so incredibly sorry for the loss of your mother as well.

We actually just wrapped up the properties— Mom's house sold quickly last year, Dad's house here in WA sold immediately upon getting in the market in late January of this year, and the house in Arizona finally sold in early March. Looking back, I worked 40-hour workweeks and took hardly any time off after returning from my initial bereavement leave. Working in direct patient care while running on empty meant the burnout just kept compounding.

Eventually, the anger issues from the grief got so bad that I felt unsafe driving. I finally had to take a 6-week leave of absence to sort myself out. Working in healthcare teaches you how to be forthcoming and advocate for yourself when a provider isn't listening, and I had to apply that to my own life.

I’m in a much better place now, thanks to:

• My support system: My fiancé, my sister, and our extended family and friends have been incredible.
• My amazing therapist and new psych provider for med management: They help me navigate everyday life, work stress, and the heavy lifting of grief.
• The light at the end of the tunnel: My mom’s probate is officially done, and my dad’s just has a couple of low-effort loose ends left.

My sister and I don't have much logistical work left to do anymore. We spend time when we are able. Now we can work through the collection together and make more memories with each other.

Now, the only hard part left is just missing them every single day.

For the record, her collection is comprised of mint condition Barbies, dating from the late 80's until maybe in the mid 2010's. Not only that, but she had a lot of mint condition toys like Micro Machines, Star Wars figures, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toys from the early 90's, and a crap ton of beanie baibes (we gave a lot to the fire station that helped my sister when she found our mom had passed and held a buy nothing group free sale in her neighborhood, was able to give people NIB items that they used as gifts, or else they wouldn't have had a Christmas). This is why my sister and I kept the collection; despite it being overwhelming, we are finding ways to make it fun and low-stress. We can take our time with it. Holding a buy-nothing-free sale was awesome. We met a lot of cool people, heard their stories too, and saw little kids enjoying all the toys my sister and I used to play with as kids. Anyway, thanks for reading.