Estate Auction

To settle the estate of William R. Fitch, the following was offered for sale at public auction. Below is a partial listing of items purchased.

Wooden Soapbox car, green with black stripe, handmade by father and son.
Purchased for $4
I don’t remember if it was a school or church project. It could have been scouts, but that doesn’t seem right either. I’ll have to ask Robb. But it was stuffed in a box among other miscellany. I remember Robb’s pride at completing the project. Bill was allowed to guide Robb, but he couldn’t do the work for him. When the job was completed and the culminating race was run, Robb bequeathed his car to Bill, the emblem of their efforts. It occupied various spots in the house over the years but usually sat in a place of prominence on Bill’s desk or a nearby bookcase. On the bottom, scratched with a nail in Robb’s 8-year-old handwriting, is his father’s name.

Small Dollar Store glass bottle with puff paint design.
Purchased for $4
Inside the bottle is a rolled piece of paper, a little scroll of Bailey’s handwriting that reads: “To Dad, Love from Bailey.” She made it in Sunday School. It’s difficult to properly proportion a freehand cross, but she managed. Other adornments include squiggly lines, dots and flowers. Clearly, she made it with him in mind, perhaps for a Father's Day.

Red Flyer child’s wagon, some rust, few dents, four good wheels.
Purchased for $7
The day Jacob was born in 1993 was an unmercifully hot June day. By 9am humidity saturated the air, and the sun beat down with a vengeance. I was sick of being pregnant, and had made up my mind that this child was going to be born whether he wanted to or not. So I loaded up baby Joey and little Bailey into the wagon and Robb pedaled alongside on his 12 inch bicycle. The four of us, me as big as a house, walked to the convenience store, the long way. The wagon wheels rattled along the brick street. We stopped to notice things along the way: an empty lot full of flowering weeds; the carcass of a squirrel; sticks; odd bits of trash. At the convenience store the kids got Popsicles. I bought a scratch n’ win lottery ticket. The Popsicles melted faster than the kids could eat them. I won $50. Jacob was born before sunset.

Klein Tools brand leather climbing belt
Purchased for $27.50
When Bill got into the cable business in 1987 he was required to climb poles. Not everyone had the luxury of a bucket truck, and in order to connect customers to the system, installers had to climb telephone poles to complete the loop. As big as he was, Bill could do it. I saw him with my own eyes. He was strong as an ox in those days, and I marveled at the rhythm of his lumbering body, like Paul Bunyon's, throwing a strap around the pole, digging spikes into the splintered wood, pulling himself up that sheer vertical incline.
There was a monstrous pine tree in front of his parents’ house. One year they decided it was time for it to come down, so Bill gathered up his chain saw and that Klein belt. He whacked the low branches from the trunk and when he’d skinned it to the limits of his reach, he strapped on his belt and climbing gaffs. Chain saw in hand, he trimmed along as he went, first climbing and then leaning back into the belt for leverage, trusting it to hold his weight. When he reached that last few feet of the tree he sawed off the tip and let fall to the ground what looked like a miniature Christmas tree. On the way back down he cut sections of the trunk into fire-log lengths and then let gravity have them. I have pictures of the entire revolution. I wish I could find them. I would love to show them to the kids.

Craftsman Socket Sets and Wrench Sets
Purchased 4 lots for $32.50 each
Jacob wanted his dad’s sockets and wrenches because, “Those are the tools I saw him use most.”

Crate of misc. items including Estwing 28 oz. hammer
Purchased for $12.50
I was on the phone with Robb, in Iraq, when I saw the auctioneer hold up Bill’s Estwing. “Oh my God, Robb. There’s his hammer. I gotta go.” Then I handed the phone to Bailey.
Bill had lots of hammers. He was a carpenter. But his Estwing was his favorite. "Perfectly balanced," he used to say. He liked the feel of swinging it. His first one was stolen not long after we were married, and though it was difficult to lay out extra money for an Estwing, that’s what we replaced it with. This is that hammer. The grip is discolored from years of occupying the palm of his left hand. The head is worn smooth from use. It is nicked and worn with time. It is still perfectly balanced.

Clay Pigeon Launcher, mounted to worn radial tire on rim
Purchased for $17.50
Last Christmas, when Robb was home on leave, he wanted everyone to go shooting. Even though it was rainy and cold and miserable, they ventured out to some nice person’s country property, lugging the pigeon launcher. After the first few shots Bailey had had enough. She retreated to the warmth of the Jeep while Bill and the boys stayed on, throwing and firing for hours. This was the first and only time they did this. Bill and I used it one other time, on the farm. He wanted me to give it a try, so he launched clay pigeons out over the pasture and let me shoot at them and miss. I remember the gun recoiling against my shoulder. I remember Bill laughing at me, showing me how to do it right. When Bailey saw the launcher sitting in the gravel outside the auction house, flanked by the red wagon and the green cart Poppy pulled behind his riding lawnmower to give them rides, she broke down and wept.

Electra Golf Clubs
Appraised value $150
Purchased for $150
Bill loved playing golf even if he wasn’t that good at it. He didn’t play much when we were married, but as the kids got older he liked taking them along on outings, often for their birthday. He was supposed to take Jacob for his 15th, but he died eleven days too early.

Winchester Model 97 12 gauge shotgun Appraised value $600
22 caliber single shot rifle a.v. $75
Winchester Model 12 12 gauge pump shotgun a.v. $450
Stevens 410 gauge single shot shotgun a.v. $300
Ruger Model 10 22 caliber carbine with scope a.v. $350

Purchased entire lot for $1875.00
Bill’s weapons were his inheritance. He’d often spoken of passing them on to his sons. He bought none of them himself. They all came from grandfathers and great grandfathers. They were used to control pests and provide food for families. They are specimens of craftsmanship. Even during his darkest financial hours, when he was willing to pawn most anything else including the Ruger .357 magnum I gave him one year for his birthday, he refused to give up his grandfather's weapons. Despite his wishes, and someone's promises to the contrary, they were sold. 

***

These are the items I was able to secure for the kids, what’s left of their father. Since the day he died, they have been shut out. They have been ignored and cheated. There is a face and a name to this unspeakable evil. At their young ages they have witnessed first hand a vacuum of greed and selfishness in its most vivid image. I find it unfathomable that there are humans sharing this planet with us who are willing to subject innocents to such unmerciful suffering. This past year God is testing my willingness and capacity to forgive. This stretches me to my outer limits. I was forced to buy back what belonged to my children to begin with, and what should have been rightfully given to them. Indeed, they were promised they would receive these things and more. Instead, the mementos they cherished most were put up for public sale. What was not sold has been hoarded and greedily concealed from the family by the one person who never wanted to be considered family, who did not earn the right to be called family, who has since abandoned the family, and who surely never loved Bill in the first place because love and her behavior cannot occupy the same space simultaneously. The loss is immeasurable and extends beyond ‘stuff’ into the realm of the intangible including trust, hope and love. I find the small-mindedness and small character of those who have inflicted this situation on my children utterly disgraceful.

CODA: In fairness, I should add that Bill's estate is insolvent. He owed more than he owned. No surprises there. However, my children were promised the opportunity to keep things that belonged to their father that held special meaning. The boys chose his tools and his guns. Many other things the kids wanted were kept, have disappeared, were not offered for sale. The final insult was the unexpected -- having to buy back my children's art projects, gifts they'd given their dad, and their toys.

Comments

[Mary-LUE]

Oh Cyn! I'm so sorry. I've seen this happen before and I just hate it. I'm glad you were able to redeem a little bit of your children's inheritance.

In my mind, this is not just disgraceful behavior, it is sinful behavior. Sinful.

[~ rachel ~]

I can not even begin to imagine you and the kids having to be there and watch as a piece of them was being auctioned off.

I'm so very glad that you were able to buy them back for them ... they'll remember that Cyn above the hurt she has caused.

Love you!

[Sarah]

At first I'm thinking

~~why is she buying this stuff~~

then it started to dawn on me, in my disbelief, that the kids were not given the opportunity to receive these things.

I am utterly sickened...and pissed off too. Unreal.

[Rebekah]

I feel sick to my stomach. This is NOT what Bill would have wanted and is not how he would have worked it out. It's not right, it's not fair, and it crushes me to think of all the "little" things that are rightfully theirs that they will never see. What a bitch!

[Ian]

That Estwing. I've not forgotten Bill Fitch's endorsement of this implement. Trusty and true. And if there were an argument to be made to the contrary, it was clear there'd be no use attempting it with him. He'd swore by it.

I felt the dissonance of this account too. Why are these items being sold? Why are they being purchased--by Cyn, for Bill's kids? Well, the afterword explained it.

I'm sorry. I really am. But it's hard not to have a disaffected pity for someone who engages in such casual brutality. To imagine how much one might profit off've a glass bottle or an old set of golf clubs at the risk of the damage and hurt.... It is the worst of us. And it surely comes with a price; invisible though it may be.

This is what we mean when we speak of The World, yeah? Harsh. Cold. Unforgiving. Unrepentant. Merciless.

God damn it. I just don't get people sometimes.

And then this is my struggle: to not repay like with like. Not to join in the passing of that same grievous offense. (This part encourages you to surround hate and force it to surrender.) I do the best that I can sometimes. I pray an even greater measure is apportioned to you.

It's just so disappointing.

[Amber]

Seriously, I have no words for the greediness, and the lack of heart. I too wondered why everything was being sold, and now it is clear.

Doesn't an event like losing someone open our eyes to the life that we should all be living?? No, apparently not for all. No, it seems that some would become even more lost in the selfishness they live in.

As I was reading the upper portion, I couldn't imagine being there, watching as these items were auctioned. I'm glad you got them Cyn.

[Tammi]

Of course I knew what was going on before the day arrived and yet I still stand in shock and awe! I am glad you have shared your story so that not everyone bridles up to the 'widow' who presumably grieves her loss.

It is my belief that she is not capable of empathy or grief. Her motivations have been made clear - out of pure selfishness, hatred for what is right and good, and the incapacity to empathize and truly love. The thought of her disgusts me.

God knew what he was doing when he made you mother of four wonderful children. You are the fire, the wall, the force that must be reckoned with when one of yours is threatened.

Your courage, steadfastness and perserverance are greatly admired!

[Pixie]

I am appalled and sick -- evil such as this is umthinkable!! And we wonder how the holocaust occurred. Individuals , sick and stupid! I hope I don't meet her in a dark alley

[Shari]

I'm so sorry. Life is completely unfair. I'm a new parent, and I've often wondered how in the world I'm going to teach my precious little girl about the cruelty in the world? I don't want her to see it, feel it or know it.