ST. CHARLES • The dining room table and chairs are gone. So are the lamps and coffee table from the living room.
The Ethan Allen dresser that meant so much to his wife, it was sold, too.
When Gloria Fissell, 80, died last year, her husband, David, began selling furniture. His plan was to move away from the memories, the three-bedroom house that enveloped him in loneliness.
Even though the 50-year-old brick ranch on the corner lot is paid for, taxes and upkeep are burdens he wants to unload.
“I’m hanging on to it by sheer whatever,” David Fissell said.
At 77, he knows life can turn quickly. Two and a half years after Gloria fell and broke her shoulder, she was gone, unable to rebound from a string of health issues and stays in nursing homes.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to live,” he said, sitting in his brown leather recliner in the living room. The chair is positioned so he can see out the front door and watch a small TV against the far wall.
For now, a friend has persuaded him to stay put.
But if Fissell continues to fulfill his wife’s dying wish, a For Sale sign could be planted in the yard sooner than later.
Gloria Fissell spent her last few years in and out of nursing homes, and noticed that many of the residents seldom, if ever, got visitors. She would hear from other residents about how lucky she was to have a husband spending 10 hours every day with her as she languished, a stroke and other ailments getting the upper hand.
Seven weeks before she died, on July 26, 2014, Gloria asked her husband: “What are you going to do after I die? Why don’t you keep visiting nursing homes and help out the best you can?”
He didn’t want to think about a life after Gloria, but he wanted to assure her he would abide by her wish.
“With a hug and a kiss we sealed the deal.”
THE LITTLE THINGS
Gloria had told him about the $1,000 she had stashed in the dresser. Use that to begin helping others, she said.“I knew she had it, but I didn’t know where,” he said with a smile that crosses his face when he talks about the woman he was married to for 33 years.For the first three months after Gloria died, Fissell didn’t do much. Then a friend called.
ST. CHARLES • The dining room table and chairs are gone. So are the lamps and coffee table from the living room.
The Ethan Allen dresser that meant so much to his wife, it was sold, too.
When Gloria Fissell, 80, died last year, her husband, David, began selling furniture. His plan was to move away from the memories, the three-bedroom house that enveloped him in loneliness.
Even though the 50-year-old brick ranch on the corner lot is paid for, taxes and upkeep are burdens he wants to unload.
“I’m hanging on to it by sheer whatever,” David Fissell said.
At 77, he knows life can turn quickly. Two and a half years after Gloria fell and broke her shoulder, she was gone, unable to rebound from a string of health issues and stays in nursing homes.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to live,” he said, sitting in his brown leather recliner in the living room. The chair is positioned so he can see out the front door and watch a small TV against the far wall.
For now, a friend has persuaded him to stay put.
But if Fissell continues to fulfill his wife’s dying wish, a For Sale sign could be planted in the yard sooner than later.
Gloria Fissell spent her last few years in and out of nursing homes, and noticed that many of the residents seldom, if ever, got visitors. She would hear from other residents about how lucky she was to have a husband spending 10 hours every day with her as she languished, a stroke and other ailments getting the upper hand.
Seven weeks before she died, on July 26, 2014, Gloria asked her husband: “What are you going to do after I die? Why don’t you keep visiting nursing homes and help out the best you can?”
He didn’t want to think about a life after Gloria, but he wanted to assure her he would abide by her wish.
“With a hug and a kiss we sealed the deal.”
THE LITTLE THINGS
Gloria had told him about the $1,000 she had stashed in the dresser. Use that to begin helping others, she said.“I knew she had it, but I didn’t know where,” he said with a smile that crosses his face when he talks about the woman he was married to for 33 years.For the first three months after Gloria died, Fissell didn’t do much. Then a friend called.
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